Abstract
With increasing adoption of supply-dependent energy sources like renewables, Energy Storage Systems (ESS) are needed to remove the gap between energy demand and supply at different time periods. During daylight there is an excess of energy supply and during the night, it drops considerably. This paper focuses on the possibility of energy storage in vertically stacked blocks as suggested by recent startups. An algorithm is proposed based on conceptual constraints, to allow for removal and storage of excess electrical energy in the form of gravitational potential energy. To improve these results further, the concepts of wasted energy and unmet demand are used to develop a new mathematical model which aims to minimize the maximum unmet demand in all time periods using lowering and stacking of blocks at specific locations. Simulation results show that for time periods up to a week long, this storage system is able to shift blocks stored in a tower of vertically stacked blocks to reduce unmet demand significantly. This is augmented by storing extra energy from a photovoltaic system, taking account of stochasticity and temporal variability. The authors therefore conclude based on a sensitivity analysis that this system and its associated mathematical optimization can be feasible when scaled up to meet ancillary-level grid storage applications.
Highlights
Electrical energy has been distributed in the form of an electrical grid
This is in contrast to running the simulation without the mathematical model where unmet demand is seen to mimic a scenario without the storage system after hour 121, as shown in figure 13
Taking into account the potential of reducing the gap between energy demand and supply using an energy storage system, this paper proposes a control strategy for a novel energy storage system using blocks to store energy and release it to produce energy when necessary
Summary
Electrical energy has been distributed in the form of an electrical grid. Demand and supply do not coincide in high renewable energy penetration scenarios, leading to the need for a way to store excess supply to fulfil excess demand at a later time This is typically achieved using an Energy Storage System (ESS)[4]. Traditional storage systems have involved chemical reactions to convert excel electrical energy into chemical energy for use at a later time These are typically short term storage solutions with energy storage and output highly dependent on the types of materials used in building the battery and are difficult to scale to a grid level storage system [5]. A new mathematical model is developed for a novel ESS which is based on vertical blocks energy storage In this ESS, excess electrical energy is stored by loading blocks in a tower format using a crane powered by solar energy.
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