Heatmap: “The Grid Needs Longer-Lasting Batteries. But How to Pay for Them?”
RFF Associate Fellow Molly Robertson discusses how long-duration energy storage can fit into the electricity market.
“Molly Robertson, an associate fellow studying electricity market design at Resources for the Future, a nonprofit research institution, is skeptical about how long-duration energy storage can fit into this market. ‘If we think about the market as compensating for those three things, there’s two questions,’ she told me. ‘One is, is the market covering all of the things that the grid needs? And are there enough products that are being purchased that actually cover all of the needs of the grid?’
... In a RFF paper, Robertson and her coauthors argue that long-duration batteries ‘likely will not be sufficiently incentivized by price fluctuations within a 24-hour period,’ as four-hour batteries are, and will instead have to ‘take greater advantage of long-term revenue opportunities like capacity markets.’ But even then, she cautioned, markets would need to see big swings in prices over potentially multi-day periods to make the charging and discharging cycles of long-duration batteries economical.”
