电力公司的最近公告亚利桑那公共服务可以标志着公用事业对建立资源以满足高峰需求的方式的转折点。

从历史上看，公用事业建造了“峰值”，通常是由天然气燃料的燃气轮机，以满足需求的尖峰，但在最近的招标中，亚利桑那州的公共服务选择了电池存储项目而不是峰值机。18luck官网“这是公用事业发出信号的流域时刻，” AES Corp的储能董事总经理Manish Kumar说。

上个月下半年，该州最大的公用事业公司表示，它计划在2025年之前增加850兆瓦的储能，其中包括200兆瓦的独立储能项目，这些储能项目竞争并赢得了与燃气峰顶的竞争并获胜。18luck官网

Gas-fired generation did make a showing in the solicitation, but it was for the output of an existing plant, not a more expensive, new-build plant. Retail power provider Calpine won a power purchase contract to deliver power to APS from one of its gas plants, but only during the summer and only for seven years. After the contract expires, APS is looking at building another 500 MW of energy storage plants, but the timing of additional solicitations has not been finalized.

APS希望电池存储将太阳能发电扩展到其高峰负载小时。第一个200兆瓦项目将安装在现有的八个太18luck官网阳能电厂。

AES was one of the winners of APS’ April solicitation for peaking resources. The Arlington, Va., based company won a contract to build and own a 100-MW storage project in Sun City. Invenergy LLC, Chicago, won a contract for a 50-MW storage plant in El Mirage.

For years, proponents of energy storage have argued batteries are better suited to meet peak demand because, unlike gas peakers that might run only a couple of hours a year, a battery can provide voltage support or other services when it is not providing peaking power. Until recently, however, utilities have been reluctant to take that leap.

“It is a groundbreaking moment in part because this a utility in a state which is traditionally gas friendly,” says Ray Hohenstein, market applications director at Fluence, a joint venture of AES and Siemens that provides energy storage equipment and services. “It is a continued recognition of where storage is today,” he says, “and where [APS] sees storage being in a handful of years.”

Chris Ruckman, energy storage director, Burns & McDonnell, says: “APS has jumped to the forefront of storage deployments in the U.S. and is demonstrating that solar combined with battery storage is a viable and powerful option for meeting peak demands with clean energy. Based on inquiries we are receiving from utilities and developers, I believe the majority will be striving to catch up to APS in 2019. … Nearly every utility is now evaluating solar and storage as a true peaking resource. As recently as 2017, there were only a handful of utilities who were thinking about this option. This trend is pushing the whole U.S. power industry toward a new frontier in energy storage and decarbonization.”

库马尔说，储能是“未来的技术”，为公用事业和纳税人节省了资金。“我认为我们将在亚利桑那州的其他公用事业中看到这种情况。”

峰值存储辩论中的Linchpin是锂离子电池的迅速下降的成本。18luck.cubAPS的招标显示“现在已经达到了预测的跨界点”，哈佛大学博士后环境研究员杰西·詹金斯（Jesse Jenkins）说，他撰写了一篇2016年的论文，预测电池正在赢得对抗Gas Peakers的胜利。

Last summer, Pacific Gas and Electric said it would seek regulatory approval to build three storage projects totaling 567.5 MW in California.

不过，更换峰顶是一回事。詹金斯说，代替一年中大部分时间运行的燃气循环厂是一个完全不同的挑战。他说：“我希望在未来几年将电池销售作为峰值替代品市场，但不要指望储存量将替换燃气发电厂的绝大多数兆瓦小时。”