Battery energy storage systems in hospitals for flexibility, resilience and arbitrage

  • Motasem Bani Mustafa

Student thesis: Doctoral Thesis

Abstract

Future target of the UK of achieving net-zero greenhouse gases (GHGs) by year 2050, led to the increase of the connected intermittent renewable energy sources (RESs) to the grid, which will be used to decarbonise electricity and heat. The
electrical generation from RES can change instantaneously and will cause instability for the electrical grid due to the mismatch between generation and demand.

Battery energy storage system (BESS) as one of the widespread electrical energy storage systems, can provide a solution for the intermittency issue associated with non-dispatchable RES like wind and solar PV, and can make the electrical grids more flexible with the increase of RES.

This research is addressing the health sector as an effective tool to manage the increase of intermittent RES and as a new provider for grid flexibility by using behind the-meter (BTM) BESS within its facilities. Facilities within the health sector like hospitals are considered one of the largest load centres connected to the distribution grid, and which run continuously throughout the year, as a result, controlling its consumption can be a source of grid flexibility.

Three different hospitals in the UK have been considered in three case studies to evaluate a wide range of BTM BESS in different scenarios to provide arbitrage and ancillary services, and to include the option of installing a photovoltaic (PV) system if it is applicable at each site. The evaluation was also extended to evaluate the associated benefit of using the same BTM BESS to increase the resilience of the hospitals against power loss or instantaneous power disturbance.
The research results show that the BESS will not be feasible for arbitrage solely since the payback period was always higher than the project lifetime. Value stacking by including the provision of the ancillary services resulted in payback periods less than 4 years, and the net present value can reach around M£ 5 for large hospitals and M£ 1.5 for the smallest hospitals. Using the BESS increased the resilience of the hospitals and was able to achieve an avoided loss of load (ALOL) of 100%.

This research is proposing the health sector as an effective participant in the transition towards a future with net-zero GHGs, a flagship for other sectors, and one of the ways to recover from the stress imposed on the health sector after the COVID19 pandemic.
Date of AwardFeb 2022
Original languageEnglish
SponsorsINTERREG IVA administered by the SEUPB.
SupervisorPatrick Keatley (Supervisor) & Ye Huang (Supervisor)

Keywords

  • Battery energy storage
  • Behind-the-meter storage
  • Flexibility
  • Ancillary services
  • Arbitrage
  • Resilience
  • Health sector
  • Simple payback period
  • Net present value

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