Due to the growth of electrification, the energy grid is facing unprecedented demands & strain. However, BTM energy storage solutions utilizing advanced battery tech offer a powerful solution to help balance electrical supply & demand. Read this article to explore how!
Contact: Betsy Barry
Communication Manager
706.206.7271
betsy.barry@acculonenergy.com
The energy grid in the United States is currently facing significant challenges. It must reliably meet customer demand, which is crucial for our economy and national security. However, the grid was largely sized in the pre-EV era and is now experiencing unprecedented demands and strain.
This strain is driven by a growing wave of electrification across transportation, commercial, and industrial markets. The number of EVs in the US alone has increased dramatically, and this rapid growth, coupled with increasing utilization of public DC fast charging, is leading to a massive expansion of demand for EV fast charging. Over the next decade, the EV fleet is expected to increase tenfold. This surge in EVs increases electricity demand and poses a serious problem for the grid.
Compounding this is a rapid shift toward variable renewable energy sources like wind and solar, which changes how and when energy flows across the system. The increasing adoption of these technologies, along with dynamic changes in customer demand, necessitates enhanced grid flexibility.
While the future of energy is being reshaped, much of the grid infrastructure remains based on historical electricity demand and is now aging and overstressed. Many critical components, especially distribution transformers, were not designed to support the widespread deployment of EVs and the electrification movement at large. Increased EV demand can introduce grid congestion and overload these transformers, potentially leading to failure in supplying power. Likewise, the broader electrification movement, the integration of intermittent renewable energy sources, and the surging power demands of AI and data-intensive applications are placing unprecedented stress on grid hardware. These pressures can lead to instability, reduce system resilience, and challenge the grid’s ability to reliably balance supply and demand in real time.
Making matters worse, these essential pieces of hardware are not easy to replace. There is a current transformer supply bottleneck in the U.S.. As of 2023, the delivery of a new transformer could take up to three years, whereas five years prior, the wait was four to six weeks. This shortage, along with utility-side processing and permitting delays, can push charging station deployment timelines back by several years, which is compounding an already serious situation.
Transformers play a pivotal role in managing the flow of electricity, so any auxiliary system that takes the pressure off of this hardware is a win-win. This is where energy storage, particularly distributed energy resources (DERs) like stationary battery energy storage systems (BESS) and solar photovoltaics (PVs), offers a powerful solution. These technologies can provide flexibility by helping to balance electrical supply and demand. So, rather than focusing on replacing transformers with newer or larger hardware, the demand increases at the edge of the grid (additional load from electric vehicle charging or renewables) could be accommodated by BESS DERs, otherwise bypassing the long lead times and high costs for upgrades.
As electrification & renewable energy integration continue to grow, the strain on the existing grid infrastructure presents significant challenges & potential bottlenecks, making the use of BTM energy storage solutions essential.
In particular, behind-the-meter (BTM) energy storage can be deployed as standalone systems or integrated with renewable systems like rooftop solar. Deploying DERs like BTM storage can lead to co-benefits such as energy savings and grid support services.
BTM BESS-integrated DC fast charging stations, for instance, can substantially reduce station peak load by 60%-90% and potentially lower charging costs. By drawing energy from the grid during non-peak hours and discharging during high-demand periods, batteries act as an energy buffer. This reduces peak power draws on the grid, minimizes dependency on grid capacity upgrades, and helps to alleviate distribution system grid capacity constraints. BTM DER-integrated charging solutions are seen as pivotal for accelerating EV adoption and expanding the charging network, as well as accommodating the excess demands on the grid as we move more and more toward mobility, commercial, and industrial applications that rely on rechargeable batteries for power.
Different battery technologies are being utilized and explored for these applications. Today, lithium-ion technologies dominate shorter duration (0.25–1 hour), high-power deployments, but recent systems have increased their duration capabilities. Lithium-ion is widely used in BTM systems like solar-plus-storage and microgrids.
This is where sodium-based energy storage is beginning to show real promise as a valuable option within the energy storage landscape. In 2024, Electric Era, an EV Charging Infrastructure solutions provider, published the following white paper.
Using standard transformer sizes, Electric Era illustrates how BESS with EV chargers can avoid costly and timely transformer upgrades by using transformers already installed. Based on their calculated standard designs shown in Table 4, optimal BESS systems would be capable of providing a 1.4 – 2.0 C continuous discharge. As we have highlighted in our ongoing series, most BESS LFP systems are catered towards 0.25C – 0.5C, continuous discharge, with only select high-power LFP systems capable of up to 1.5 C continuous. Layered metal oxide sodium ion systems can meet all of the design system requirements by providing a minimum of 2.0 C continuous discharge. See the Table below from Electric Era’s white paper¹:
Table 1.
As electrification and renewable energy integration continue to grow, the strain on the existing grid infrastructure, particularly distribution transformers, presents significant challenges and potential bottlenecks. BTM energy storage, utilizing technologies like advanced batteries, including promising sodium-based options, is essential. By mitigating peak demand and providing grid support services, energy storage can help defer costly and time-consuming grid upgrades, accelerate the deployment of critical charging infrastructure, and contribute to a more resilient and flexible energy system.
Footnotes:
1. Reineman, S. Utility service & battery sizing for storage backed EV fast charging stations White Paper. See https://electricera.tech/blog/the-future-of-ev-charging-battery-backed-ev-fast-charging-stations