With the aim to establish the preliminary sustainability, energy storage and materials safety assessment of HYBRIS Hybrid Energy Storage System (HESS), HYBRIS’ consortium is proud to share the report on the Levelized Cost of Storage (LCOS) analysis of the Hybrid Energy Storage System (HESS), preliminarily proving its economic competitiveness.
The deliverable D1.6, developed by the environmental engineering SME specialized in batteries, LOMARTOV, with the main support of the battery manufacturers of the project TOSHIBA and KEMIWATT, has calculated and analysed the LCOS of HYBRIS HESS under different perspectives to provide an initial conception of the project’s positioning within the current state-of-the-art of energy storage systems. Through this assessment, insightful observations have been extracted that can set the direction, focus and magnitude of the future efforts and actions in the project development.
The report is oriented to a wide group of stakeholders, ranging from battery’s manufacturers, pilot site owners and other behind-the-meter (BTM) commercial, industrial and residential customers, to the general public concerned about the importance of a sustainable energy transition, being the results also important to nourish the global R&D ecosystem in the field.
The LCOS analysis was performed using as a reference the system size of the aqueous organic redox flow battery (AORFB) and the lithium titanate (LTO) battery to be implemented in the three pilot sites for the HESS prototypes, i.e.:
- residential energy community in Messina, Italy;
- private grids in a business park in Den Hague, The Netherlands;
- E-mobility hub with multipurpose EV charging in Brasschaat, Belgium.
It is relevant to notice that the system power and capacity is the same for all the testing sites. Therefore, at this early project stage, variations in the LCOS of each of them are exclusively attributed to on-site charging costs (i.e. cost of electricity) and PV generation.
Among the several approaches that can be implemented to calculate a LCOS, a formula considering the capital and operating cost associated to both battery technologies (LTO and AORFB) and their weighted contribution to the integrated hybrid scheme final energy delivery capacity was developed.
The primary conclusion that can be drawn from the observed results is that – given the technical specifications disclosed by the battery manufacturers and the planned operation conditions for the pilot sites – HYBRIS proves to be competitive from a cost perspective. This affirmation is based on the LCOS values that were obtained when analysing each of the scenarios that were considered in this deliverable:
- Under a representative range of electricity costs, the charging cost proves to be the primary driver on the changes in the magnitude of the LCOS. This observation reveals that the charging of the HESS supposes a hotspot for the project when assessing its costs.
- When comparing the technology-specific parameters of the system – this is, CAPEX and Operation & maintenance (O&M) costs –, the largest reductions in the overall LCOS of the HESS resulted from the capital expenditure (CAPEX) reduction. This indicates that when seeking the achievement of the KPI objectives, CAPEX reduction should be a primary focus to improve the LCOS of the system in a significant way.
- Because the HESS is charged with an electric input that relies on PV generation with a complementary supply stemming from the electric grid, the LCOS was determined on each site by variating the share of input electricity that came from each source. The results show that the HYBRIS is most competitive and cost-optimized when relying completely on PV generation.
- When comparing the least favorable LCOS results for all the pilot sites (these being the ones that assumed a PV share of 0%) to the compiled data from literature, HYBRIS positioned well within the range of reported values. This reinforces the conclusion that HYBRIS can be considered cost competitive when compared to other previously studied ESSs and HESSs.
Finally, as a general conclusion, it has been stated that all LCOS results will have to be confirmed and validated in a real environment application, as soon as the pilot sites facilities will be established and ready to operate, while PV generation should be pursued as the main energy source of the HESS.
For more detailed information on the results download the LCOS analysis of HYBRIS project here.
Written by:
- Isaac Herraiz Cardona, Ph. D. (Lomartov)
- Jaume Alberola Borrás, Ph. D. Candidate (Lomartov)
- Evelina Castellana, M.A. (Lomartov)
