Demand Potential Estimation of Energy Storage Units in Accordance with Renewables

Renewable energy sources are characterized by clean generation while low reliability at the same time. To address the fluctuation of renewable energy, energy storage could potentially bridge the gap between random generation and secure consumption. However, it remains economically challenging to introduce large-scale energy storage units to reverse the inherent fluctuation trend. Accordingly, this paper proposes a demand estimation procedure for energy storage units in accordance with renewable energy. The total requirement of energy storage is composed of power source, grid and end user sides. In each side, there are multiple key identified factors that could impose an influence of storage scale. The cause-to-effect relationship is built by reliable multi-variable regression tool. Case study is carried out using data in a southeast province of China, as this province is a representative in terms of generation composition. Results indicate that the total demand of energy storage could reach 4.3GW in 2030, 25.94GW in 2045 and 113.92GW in 2060.