Battery Energy Storage Systems as an Alternative to Conventional Grid Reinforcement

The upcoming transformation from internal combustion vehicles to electric vehicles in the private transport sector, together with the increasing demand for electricity, leads to challenges such as over-loading for the power grid. This study shows an economic analysis to what extent storage systems can be an alternative to conventional grid reinforcement. Current and predicted costs for storage systems are compared with the costs for cable replacement in the mediumvoltage grid and correlations are derived. Accurate cosimulations of storage systems and the distribution grid allow these cost scenarios to be applied to use cases. The results show that the energy related costs for storage systems decrease about 38.5 % from 468 $/kWh to 288 $/kWh from 2020 to 2030. This leads to scenarios, mainly in urban distribution grids, where storage systems are an alternative to conventional grid reinforcement.