An open letter to NZ power companies
Just curious. A rhetorical question, if you like. Why is it that
none of the power companies and none of the wind farms have installed
mega batteries. The 100mWh Tesla battery at Hornsdale in Southern Australia has
paid off it's total capital costs in 3 short years. I've never heard of
such a profitable investment. Now virtually all the income is pure profit. In addition it has greatly stabilized
the voltage and frequency of the grid it is part of and has reduced power prices. They are now installing more batteries, more or less doubling their capacity.
For new wind farms, I wonder why they
don't put in a mega-battery first before they even have the first wind turbine up and running.
With our crazy spot price system, it would seem likely that they
would have started to make a profit right off, buying low and selling high. When the turbines are working, they can, of course, store any excess power they generate instead of having to feather the the turbines. Mega batteries basically constitute a peaker plant*.
*A power plant that is only used when power demand is unusually high. They are highly uneconomical but are needed to ensure a constant supply of electricity regardless of the demand.
From the customer's point of view, if power companies had mega
batteries, the power companies could stop being so twitchy about their customers
installing solar panels. They could give the customer a decent price for the power that he sends to the grid, say 75% of the
price that they charge the customer for power he takes from the grid.
This would eliminate the need and the motivation for the customer to go
off grid and/or install his own batteries. The customer foots the capital cost
for the generation infrastructure (panels) and the power company gains
all this extra generation capacity for free. It is a win win all
around.
Lithium is not the only game in
town. For instance, there are the ZnBr plating batteries and the liquid metal batteries using Ca and Sb. Both have the
distinct advantage of not degrading over time and both can be fully
charged and discharged without damage. They also don't lose their charge if left fully charged. They don't have quite the cycle
efficiency of Li batteries but are a tad better than pumped storage. If
you go to youtube and type in 'Just Have A Think Iron Batteries' you
will see another innovation that, if it is all it is cracked up to be,
will revolutionize renewable energy. Then there are a range of redox batteries using the different oxidation states of Fe or V.
Why are you power companies so slow off the mark. You could be creaming the profits while at the same time serving your customers, something that is somewhat lacking at present. I think I know what the answer is.
You are making lovely wind falls when the spot price peaks. When enough mega-battery capacity is installed there will no longer be these wind falls. Mind you the first adopters will really cream the profits.
