Opportunities for Energy Storage to Provide Spinning Reserve in Cordova, Alaska

The potential benefits from energy storage deployment are highly location dependent. In market areas, remuneration is largely based on market products and prices. In a vertically integrated utility, the benefits are often monetized through cost savings. This paper quantifies the potential benefits of using an energy storage system to provide spinning reserve within the Cordova Electric Cooperative (CEC) grid. The CEC is a small rural electrical cooperative in Cordova, Alaska. Energy storage is being considered to provide spinning reserve. The cost saving is realized through reduced fossil fuel consumption and run time on the diesel generators. In this paper, the cost savings are used to determine the benefit-to-cost ratio for various energy storage configurations. Additional potential benefits of energy storage for the CEC are also presented.