Battery Energy Storage System
(BESS)

Energy storage captures energy when it is produced and stores it for later use through a variety of technologies including, but not limited to, pumped hydro, batteries, compressed air, hydrogen storage and thermal storage.

 

This ability to store energy for later use enables increased flexibility in an energy system, because energy storage can act as a generation, transmission, or distribution asset – sometimes within a single piece of infrastructure. Energy storage assets can augment any number of resources in an electricity system, including complementing the intermittent generation of renewable assets, responding to fluctuations in grid demand, helping meet peak demand, or reducing the need for generators to increase their output.

 

Moreover, the ability to store low-cost energy to supply additional energy during high-cost peaks, increases the amount of energy available within the system, but also reduces costs for consumers. Energy storage can also serve as a backup if power generation is interrupted, boosting the reliability and resilience of the system, and helping to reduce the negative environmental impacts of increased energy demand through the support of renewables, a reduced need for generation, and avoiding peaking.  Slotting energy storage into an existing system can also reduce the need to build additional generation assets if existing transmission or distribution assets might be hard-pressed to meet increases or changes in demand.