8 May 2012: The International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA) has published a guide for decision makers, titled “Electricity Storage and Renewables for Island Power,” that aims to help electricity system planners, operators and managers better understand the role storage can and should play in their electricity systems and to provide guidance on selecting and installing storage.

The report indicates that electricity systems in remote areas and on islands can use electricity storage to integrate renewable generation and help meet varying electricity demand. Various technologically mature options are discussed, including lead-acid batteries, lithium-ion batteries, flow batteries, flywheels, compressed air energy storage, and pumped hydropower. Other storage technologies in earlier stages of technical development are also noted.

The paper indicates that storage can be of value in systems that are transmission capacity-constrained or that suffer from low power quality at the end of the distribution systems. The first step when considering storage is to conduct careful analyses of the costs and benefits of storage, which is generally not appropriate for solving problems such as chronic supply shortage or poorly performing transmission and distribution systems. The paper finds a combination of renewables, storage and diesel generators, all carefully sized and integrated, can yield the lowest cost solution (based on the levelized cost of electricity).

Lessons learned from case studies of storage applications for islands and remote locations are highlighted and include: paying close attention to system design, ensuring that all system components are sized correctly and can work together; the more system components, the greater the complexity and challenge to system integration; not expecting new technologies/pilots to be financially viable; introducing one technical innovation at a time; not underestimating transport costs, complexity and time requirements associated with getting equipment and expertise to rural/isolated locations; system monitoring and operation and maintenance are critical to ensure system reliability/longevity; avoiding diesel generator oversizing that leads to excessive fuel consumption; ensuring that systems are financially sustainable; and ensuring end-user buy-in (financially and politically). [Publication: Electricity Storage and Renewables for Island Power]