Energy storage revenue and cost analysis

Do investors underestimate the value of energy storage?

While energy storage is already being deployed to support grids across major power markets, new McKinsey analysis suggests investors often underestimate the value of energy storage in their business cases.

How do I evaluate potential revenue streams from energy storage assets?

Evaluating potential revenue streams from flexible assets, such as energy storage systems, is not simple. Investors need to consider the various value pools available to a storage asset, including wholesale, grid services, and capacity markets, as well as the inherent volatility of the prices of each (see sidebar, “Glossary”).

What are energy storage cost metrics?

Cost metrics are approached from the viewpoint of the final downstream entity in the energy storage project, ultimately representing the final project cost. This framework helps eliminate current inconsistencies associated with specific cost categories (e.g., energy storage racks vs. energy storage modules).

Why is energy storage evaluation important?

Although ESS bring a diverse range of benefits to utilities and customers, realizing the wide-scale adoption of energy storage necessitates evaluating the costs and benefits of ESS in a comprehensive and systematic manner. Such an evaluation is especially important for emerging energy storage technologies such as BESS.

Which energy storage technologies are included in the 2020 cost and performance assessment?

The 2020 Cost and Performance Assessment provided installed costs for six energy storage technologies: lithium-ion (Li-ion) batteries, lead-acid batteries, vanadium redox flow batteries, pumped storage hydro, compressed-air energy storage, and hydrogen energy storage.

What is energy storage value snapshots?

Reflects initial cash outflow from equity sponsor. The Value Snapshots analyze project economics of selected energy storage applications by simulating locally available revenue streams, given the energy storage system’s performance constraints, applicable contractual rules and assuming perfect foresight with respect to future prices and load.