I'm on battery power !

[FishbonzWV]

I read an article in todays local newspaper about this. Turns out it is the substation that feeds my house. I'm also on the very end of the grid that feeds from there. We would lose power quite often in winter due to snow and ice bringing down the lines. That was what prompted me to have a backup battery system.

So the power company has copied my system!!! LOL

Interesting that they are contemplating adding them to the commercial wind farms.

http://www.aep.com/newsroom/newsreleases/default.asp?dbcommand=DisplayRelease&ID=1397

Hope the link works

Fishbonz

[richhagen]

One thing I didn't quite get out of the article.  When they cite there near term goal of having 25 Megawatts, is that megawatt hours of storage, or 25 megawatts of peak power output.  It is interesting because renewable sources like wind and solar cannot replace one power plant today, because they do not add to the baseline power generating capacity in that they cannot be counted on to generate power at any given time.  Utility scale storage can change that, which if it becomes more economical can make renewable energy sources much more attractive to utilities.  Rich

[disaray1]

 I had dinner with an engineer friend from Siemens, and he told me about what they've been working on in the storage department- air. As I understand it, when the plants are operating at non peak times, big air compressors are linked to the turbines, and the compressed air is sent underground to storage "pockets". When approaching peak time again, instead of firing up an additional NG turbine, the air is used to drive that turbine, no additional fuel needed.  Probably old news, but I'd never heard of it.

 David

[DamonHD]

Well that's an interesting addition to hydro/dam storage...  The more large/efficient stores that can be dotted round the grid the better, I suspect.

Rgds

Damon

[Gary D]

Here is an earlier news release (a bit dated) from http://www.aep.com/newsroom/newsreleases/default.asp?dbcommand=displayrelease&ID=790the same company. It may be relevant?

[FishbonzWV]

rich,

The local article says the battery can supply 500 to 600 households for 6 to 7 hours.

Weighs in at 77 tons.

I haven't been down to look at it, but they have a pix in the paper and it appears to be about the size of a semi trailor.

Need to check this baby out!

[BrianK]

I see that its aep. Now I know where the $4 a month they charge me for just being their customer goes. At least it seems it might be something good.

[richhagen]

I linked back to the utility and read about the installation, I also read up on the battery technology in use.  Probably not as practical for a smaller battery as the volume vs. surface area would not be as good, and that would become a factor since for normal home use it would have to be maintained at high temperature indefinitely.  It will be interesting to see how it competes as far as the economics for utility scale storage with CAES and pumped hydro over the long term.  Rich