Energy Storage Chapter 1 Introduction

Chapter 1 Introduction

1.1 Introduction

Fossil fuel resources such as petroleum are becoming not only more scarce in some
areas but also increasingly inaccessible and costly. Most nations are now
addressing the possibilities of providing energy in as many forms possible from
sources other than fossil fuel. Petroleum products have largely been responsible for
the immense progress made in the world of today. Since the beginning of the 20th
century, petroleum products have enabled the development of railroads, aircraft
propulsion, large ocean-traversing vessels, as well as the automobile.

Large facilities for electrical energy storage have been built in the context of
matching the variable power demand (daily cycles) with the installation of nuclear
power plants, known for their mostly constant power production. Storage capacity
has been developed to accumulate energy produced by large, less responsive
thermal generation plants and then redispatch it based on peak demand. Figure 1.1
shows an example of the typical power profile of the weekly consumption.

Figure 1.1 Daily variations of the power demand over a week

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Energy Storage Chapter 1 Introduction

Renewable energy sources such as wind turbines, photovoltaic solar systems,

solar-thermo power, biomass power plants, fuel cells, gas micro-turbines,
hydropower turbines, combined heat and power (CHP) micro-turbines and hybrid
power systems will be part of future power generation systems.

Renewable energy sources are known by their variable and intermittent nature
variation in time or available power related to meteorology conditions. This is
clearly another motivation for the development and the realization of new energy
storage systems.

Since the end of the twentieth century, a new trend has emerged in the context of
the development of renewable energy sources. From the classical centralized utility
of today, there is a clear movement in the direction of distributed utility of
tomorrow, together with the appearance of so-called smart grids (Figure 1.2). This
concerns the power matching between decentralized generators and their loads
nearby that can generate significant and fast variations of the local power demand.

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Energy Storage Chapter 1 Introduction

Figure 1.2 From centralized utility of today to distributed utility of tomorrow.

The storage of energy in one form or another for later use has been extremely
important not only to mankind but also to virtually every form of life. Storing
energy in the form of chemical structures, such as carbohydrates, enables life
forms to survive for periods of time between food intake activities.

Storage facilities were largely financed by arbitrage (buying energy at a low price
and selling it at a higher price). In addition to the benefits derived by utility
companies from arbitrage, energy storage currently contributes to reliability,
efficiency, power quality, transmission optimization, and black-start functions.
Although different end functions of energy storage affect production, the sole
purpose of storage is to increase operational flexibility.

A general tendency toward an increasing use of energy storage can be observed.

Two different aspects are considered:

1. First, the use of storage technology in order to solve the problem of

availability of sources (day-to-night shift for photovoltaic plants as a first
example, or the bridging of lack of production of fluctuating sources).

2. Second, the use of energy storage technology in order to assist some

problematic consumers when the local generation cannot follow the strong
and fast demand. In this context, two examples can illustrate the problem.
First, in the case of a “microturbine” the fast increase of load must respect
some minimum time constant (minutes, due to thermal constraints). Second,
in the case of the use of “fuel cells,” the design of these systems for the
maximum peak power can lead to unacceptable costs. The design for the
“mean value” is more realistic, and the highest power demand can be taken
out of a storage device.

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Energy Storage Chapter 1 Introduction

1.2 GENERAL DEFINITIONS

1.2.1 Definitions of Energy
The most convenient way to define energy is to use its relationship to the integral
of the exchanged power:

Another way is to consider the general definitions of a thermodynamic system and

to combine them with the macroscopic forms of energy of the system. The sum of
all forms of energy of a system is called the total energy.

The macroscopic energy of a system is related to its movement and to the external
effects such as gravity, magnetism, or electricity.

The microscopic energy is related to the molecular activity of a system and is often
called the internal energy

A simple definition of the total energy is given by the sum of the internal energy U,
the kinetic energy KE, and the potential energy PE, leading to the expression:

where
m is the mass
V is the velocity of the mass from a given reference point
g is the gravitational acceleration
z is the height of the mass center from the reference point

For a system with a rotating mass, the term for the kinetic energy becomes

where

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Energy Storage Chapter 1 Introduction

J is the moment of inertia

ω is the angular velocity

Relation 1.2 is valid for closed systems. For so-called open systems, an additional
term related to the flow of material must be introduced. This related energy is
characterized through the mass flow rate:

where
v is the volumetric flow rate
ρ is the density
A is the section of the flow
Vmean is the average velocity of the flow

The energy flow rate associated with the flow of material is given by

where e is the specific energy of the material.

Magnetic and electric effects can play a major role in the energy of given systems
like inductors or capacitors. These amounts are considered as macroscopic energy
and can be calculated as

In Relation 1.2, U is the internal energy of a system and includes all forms of
microscopic energy at the molecular and atomic scales. It corresponds to the
kinetic and potential energies of molecules and atoms, of nucleons and electrons,
and to the energy that binds them together. In the case of energy storage devices,
the variation of the internal energy is generally considered, and it can be described
through Relation 1.7:

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Energy Storage Chapter 1 Introduction

The first term on the right-hand side of the equation is the work done on the
system, where p is the pressure and V the volume. The second term on the right
corresponds to the heat transferred into the system in terms of temperature T and
entropy S.

The third term represents the chemical energy and is the form of the internal
energy related to the cohesion between the positively charged nucleus of the atoms
and their negative electrons. The chemical energy binds also the atoms in the
molecule. μi is the chemical potential of a species i, and n corresponds to the
number of considered moles.

In the case of an electrochemical battery, the internal energy is expressed through

the Gibbs energy ΔG. This energy is related to the standard redox potential by the
well-known Nernst law (Relation 1.8):

where
(Ox) and (Red) designate the concentrations of the oxidized and reduced
forms of the redox couple, R = 8.32 J/K/mol
T is the absolute temperature
n is the number of electrons implicated in the reaction
F is the constant of Faraday,
In Relation 1.8, the index SHE indicates that the potential is referred to the
standard hydrogen electrode.

1.2.2 Energy and Power

Power can be defined as the “energy flow rate” to or from a given system:

where
P (power) is expressed in Watt [W], [kW], [MW]

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Energy Storage Chapter 1 Introduction

E (energy) is expressed in Joules [J], [kWh]

t (time) in seconds [s], hours [h]

1 J = 1 W×s = 1 N×m
Example: Transformation of Electric Power into Heat
Energy:
Heating up 100 L of water from 20°C to 60°C needs 4.6 kWh (4.18 J/°C and per
gram gives 16.7 MJ or 4.6 kWh).
Power:
To do this heating up within: 4 h, a 1.15 kW heater is needed;
1 h, a 4.6 kW heater is needed.

1.2.3 Storage Form of Energy

In Figure 1.3, the real storage element shown in the diagram indicates “storage
form of energy,” representing, in fact, the energy reservoir. This block corresponds
to one unit where the change of the internal state is directly related to the change of
the energy content with a high reversibility.

The storage forms of energy can be various:

 The potential energy associated with the earth’s gravity when one mass is
moved from one altitude to another (e.g., water in a pumped-storage plant)
 The kinetic energy of a mechanical system in rotation (flywheels)
 The pressure of a compressible fluid (compressed air)
 Covalent bonds of given molecules (electrochemicals)
 Electric or magnetic state variables (electrical field, magnetic field,
capacitors, superconducting inductors)