Analyze the Effects of COVID-19 on Energy Storage Systems: A Techno-Economic Approach

TL;DR

This study examines how COVID-19 affected energy storage systems in the U.S., using a techno-economic model to analyze revenue impacts and market participation of various storage technologies, with a focus on New York City.

Contribution

It introduces a linear programming model to evaluate COVID-19's impact on energy storage revenues and market participation across five major U.S. storage technologies.

Findings

COVID-19 negatively impacted NYC power sector.

Energy storage revenues decreased during the pandemic.

Market participation of storage technologies was affected.

Abstract

During the COVID-19 pandemic, the U.S. power sector witnessed remarkable electricity demand changes in many geographical regions. these changes were evident in population-dense cities. This paper incorporates a techno-economic analysis of energy storage systems to investigate the pandemic's influence on ESS development, In particular, we employ a linear program-based revenue maximization model to capture the revenues of ESS from participating in the electricity market, by performing arbitrage on energy trading, and regulation market, by providing regulation services to stabilize the grid's frequency. We consider five dominant energy storage technologies in the U.S., namely, Lithium-ion, Advanced Lead Acid, Flywheel, Vanadium Redox Flow, and Lithium-Iron Phosphate storage technologies. Extensive numerical results conducted on the case of New York City allow us to highlight the negative impact that COVID-19 had on the NYC power sector.