Adding energy storage

[dt-woods]

The question is how to handle stored energy in ElectricityLCI.

"Do we think of them as a “generation” or “consumption” component? I’m thinking about the ~15% of energy that is lost when it passes through a Li-ion battery, and the batteries that are tied to the grid instead of a generator.
— J. Redublo

Currently, eLCI does not do anything with energy storage, in part, because negative electricity generation is filtered from the EIA 923 database. This decision was made in 2016, when energy storage was not such a big deal. Looking ahead, this likely needs rethinking.

I think functionally it just represents a loss to the grid much like the T&D losses that are embedded in the “Consumption mix – at user” unit processes in the eLCI. I guess using your verbiage below, I would call energy storage a consumer of electricity. In the eLCI, we could:

1. Embed them in the generation mix – at grid unit processes. So using your notional 15% roundtrip efficiency, we need to pull in 1.15 MWh of power from the generating units to make 1 MWh of power to go to consumption mixes
2. Create a storage mixer unit process where we can have inputs based on the LCIs for the different storage technologies – pumped hydro, battery, etc., which takes in 1.15 MWh and outputs 1 MWh.
3. Or some other way I’m sure I’m not thinking about.

Just peaked at the EIA923 data for 2022, and the majority of electricity generation from Prime Mover codes PS (pumped hydro storage) and BA (battery) show negative net generation over 2022. Somehow, there are some positive net generators too!
— M. Jamieson