Date: January 8, 2025

Topic: Energy Storage: Boosting System Performance and Cutting Costs — But What About Operating Risk?

Speaker: Dr. Miguel Ortega Vazquez – EPRI

Dr. Vazquez earned his EE degree from Instituto Tecnológico de Morelia, M.Sc. Universidad Autónoma de Nuevo León, and Ph.D. The University of Manchester. His career includes roles as a Postdoctoral Scholar at The University of Manchester, Assistant Professor at Chalmers University of Technology, and Assistant Professor at the University of Washington. Since 2017, he has been a Principal at the Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI). His research focuses on efficient, secure, and sustainable power system operation and planning.

Abstract: Storage has been poised as a resource that would bring forth a large stream of benefits to system operations, including boosted economic efficiency, the ability to provide ancillary services, and in general promote the integration of variable renewable energy sources. Being energy limited resources, storage operation relies on charging when the system is lightly loaded or stressed (e.g., net demand valleys), and discharging when the system is heavily loaded or stressed (e.g., during peak demand periods). Such strategy reduces the magnitude of the net demand peak that must be matched by conventional generation. Consequently, the number of conventional resources during those periods is lower, and this effectively reduces redundancy from the supply side, and the likelihood and magnitude of outages resulting in power balance violations increase. This presentation shows, via numerical results, how storage can increase operating risk and how revisiting reserve requirements could mitigate risk.

Attendance was 15 Industry members and 30 Students.

Event Photos:

Image of speaker and presentation.