In this article, we explore three business models for commercial and industrial energy storage: owner-owned investment, energy management contracts, and financial leasing.
Proposes an optimal scheduling model built on functions on power and heat flows. Energy Storage Technology is one of the major components of renewable energy integration and decarbonization of world energy systems. It significantly benefits addressing ancillary power services, power quality stability, and power supply reliability.
Business Models for Energy Storage Rows display market roles, columns reflect types of revenue streams, and boxes specify the business model around an application. Each of the three parameters is useful to systematically differentiate investment opportunities for energy storage in terms of applicable business models.
Does energy storage complicate a modeling approach?
Energy storage complicates such a modeling approach. Improving the representation of the balance of the system can have major effects in capturing energy-storage costs and benefits. Given its physical characteristics and the range of services that it can provide, energy storage raises unique modeling challenges.
We propose to characterize a “business model” for storage by three parameters: the application of a storage facility, the market role of a potential investor, and the revenue stream obtained from its operation (Massa et al., 2017).
Is energy storage the future?
Energy storage holds a large promise for the future. The equipment used in energy storage has to be manufac-tured, installed and operated. And new service models will arise. Storage solutions will create new connections between power generation and energy users, and be-tween producing/consuming players ("pro-sumers") as well.
Although academic analysis finds that business models for energy storage are largely unprofitable, annual deployment of storage capacity is globally on the rise (IEA, 2020). One reason may be generous subsidy support and non-financial drivers like a first-mover advantage (Wood Mackenzie, 2019).