Energy Storage for the Backyard

There has been a constant drumbeat of news about energy storage innovations that will drive the future of electric cars. We've been a little chagrined, however, at the relative lack of attention to batteries and storage that will impact residential home energy.  This has been frustrating because there is great potential in this field to spur energy conservation and more efficient energy use. But two recent announcements have us feeling hopeful that the drought will be alleviated sooner rather than later. The first comes from utility company American Electric Power (AEP), which has made a move to put energy storage capacity in the hands of consumers by test marketing backyard storage. The second is an announcement from established manufacturer of lithium ion batteries for electric cars, Ener1, which announced at the Jeffries Energy Conference that it was branching into grid storage that will store energy for houses.

AEP's equipment would store a few hours of electricity for small groups of houses, and is one of the first tests of distributed storage on the power grid. Among other things, the utility will use the small storage units for "peak shaving," meaning that it will draw on stored energy when the grid is operating at peak volume and energy costs are at their highest. Consumers should benefit from lower costs during off-peak hours and a lower risk of electricity interruption. A secondary but equally significant benefit of AEP's distributed storage is that it will be capable of working with renewable energy sources. Wind power and solar energy, which are challenging because of their variability, can be stored and used when needed.

While Ener1 continues to be an auto-focused battery producer, it is also making a foray into residential energy storage, and will begin testing out storage units later this month. Like the AEP development, Ener1 will enable utilities to benefit from renewable sources of energy, and control power supply to match demand. At this point, both enterprises are tests, and the costs associated with the developing technology are high. Both developments also benefit utilities, which will control use of backup power.  We predict that consumers increasingly will demand sufficient control to reap the benefits of their self-driven efficiency and off-peak use. In fact, we're almost sure of it, as sale of home energy monitoring units like TED, The Energy Detective,  are soaring. Consumers are ready to own their electricity usage. Residential energy storage is a step in the right direction.