Definitions

DEFINITIONS FROM THE ENERGY STORAGE BENEFITS TABLE
  • Black start

    A service procured by transmission and distribution system operators to help re-energise an electricity network or grid following a widespread uncontrolled shutdown of the system. This usually involves the need to provide power for a period of at least 8 hours. A recent example of such an event was the August 2003 shutdown of the North East of the United States.

  • Device management

    Describes whether active cooling or other energy consuming/efficiency reducing management processes are required during operation to keep the relevant storage device safe.

  • Efficiency

    Round trip efficiency, sometimes RTE- the amount of energy discharged as a ratio of the amount used to charge a storage system including any parasitic loads required to operate the system (e.g. cooling loads or other balance of plant activity).

  • Expandability

    The ability to add more storage capacity to a system, best represented by the marginal cost of incremental storage capacity of a storage system.

  • Locatability

    Describes the extent to which the choice of location for a plant of that technology is dictated by geography, geology or safety considerations.

  • Renewable curtailment avoidance

    The extent to which a storage technology can provide an on-site support service to a renewable generation facility which avoids the need for the renewable energy plant to be shut down due to network or connection constraints (e.g. too much wind which the network cannot absorb).

  • Response

    The speed in seconds at which each technology can respond to a signal to deliver power or add load to the grid or provide any other service (e.g. reactive power).

  • Sustainability

    The level of impact upon the environment.

COMMONLY USED ACRONYMS
LAES Liquid Air Energy Storage
EPC Engineering, Procurement & Construction – a contracting arrangement.
OEM Original Equipment Manufacturer
MAC Main Air Compressor
RAC Recycling Air Compressor
PRU Power Recovery Unit
CAES Compressed Air Energy Storage
PHS Pumped Hydro Storage
LNG Liquefied Natural Gas
STOR Short Term Operating Reserve
FEED Front End Engineering & Design

Frequently asked questions

THE NEED FOR LONG DURATION STORAGE
  • Why do we need energy storage?

    Due to growing demand, changing consumption and increasing intermittency due to renewable generation on the electricity network, we need energy storage to help balance the grid and store energy for times of peak demand.

  • Is it realistic that Renewables can supply all of our electricity needs?

    Most renewable sources are intermittent so cannot be relied on alone to provide continuous power. This is usually overcome by having a mixed portfolio of generation sources which include some non-intermittent fossil or nuclear sources and more frequently nowadays, storage. However, it’s possible that future energy generation will include a mixture of nuclear combined with renewables backed up by energy storage.

  • What do we mean by true long duration energy storage?

    We are referring to energy storage systems with durations upwards of 4 hours up to days at a time. Long duration is required for applications related to security of supply (e.g. Capacity Markets, Black Start, network investment deferral) and renewable curtailment reduction, and when the revenue stack includes at least one of these applications.

  • What are the benefits to society of investing in long duration storage?

    Long duration storage provides greater resilience for gaps in renewables production, so provides for a greater penetration of intermittent renewable power. In addition, long duration storage provides more reserve power to cover for unexpected events on the system (e.g. failures in other power plants) and so contributes to maintaining energy independence whilst supporting increased sustainability of the grid.

  • What are the key characteristics required of a long duration energy storage technology?

    A long duration storage technology needs to be low cost, long lived, freely locatable, flexible and environmentally friendly. LAES fulfils all of these characteristics.

PROJECT DELIVERY
  • What roles does Highview Power play in the delivery of a plant?

    Highview Power undertakes techno-economic feasibility studies for clients, engineering services including preliminary design, Front End Engineering and Design, and in many cases detailed design work. The preferred delivery vehicle for a project is to work with a large delivery partner, EPC and/or OEM to support the successful delivery of a LAES plant. The technology is ultimately licenced to the delivery vehicle and the associated consortium, in which Highview may or may not remain a participant.

  • Who constructs a Highview Power LAES plant?

    Similarly to thermal power plants, a LAES plants construction would be managed by an EPC contractor unless the client has the resources internally to manage the project.

  • Which corporations are Highview Power’s principal delivery partners?

    Highview Power has long-standing relationships with all global large machinery manufacturers, including licence agreements and collaboration agreements with large blue-chip organisations. We have several framework agreements in place with large multi-national EPC organisations to facilitate the roll-out and long-term support infrastructure for the technology.

GOVERNMENT SUPPORT
  • In what ways has the UK Government supported the development of Highview Power’s LAES technology?

    Since the company was founded in 2005, Highview Power has benefitted from ~£12m of government funding, mostly through funding competitions run by the Department of Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS), formerly the Department for Energy and Climate Change (DECC), and by Innovate UK, the UK’s innovation agency. Highview Power has also run a successful Knowledge Transfer Partnership (KTP) with the University of Brighton; the KTP associate has since been employed by Highview Power and is now firmly embedded in the Engineering team.

LIQUID AIR ENERGY STORAGE
  • Who invented Liquid Air energy storage and how old is the technology?

    The concept of using liquid air as an energy storage medium was published in academic papers in the 1970s.

  • What is it that makes LAES more suitable than other technologies for providing utility scale long duration energy storage?

    LAES meets all the necessary criteria for long duration storage; it is low cost, has a long lifetime, an existing supply chain, is compact in size, is freely locatable, flexible and is environmentally friendly.

  • What is the smallest scale system you would build?

    LAES is better suited for systems upwards of 10MW.

  • Why hasn’t anyone done this before?

    The requirement for long duration energy storage is a growing need. Prior to Highview’s work nobody to date has been able to develop a large enough system, for a high enough efficiency and sufficiently low cost to make it viable that is locatable at the point of need on the grid.

  • What does it mean to say “a Highview LAES plant can power 200,000 homes for a whole day”?

    A 200 MW Highview Power system with energy capacity of 4.8 GWh could serve 200,000 homes of average demand for a whole day.

  • Why do you say that Highview Power’s LAES technology is the “missing piece of the puzzle” in the modern energy system?

    The modern energy system needs to be sustainable, secure and low cost. Locatable long duration energy storage is the missing link to solving this problem.

INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY
  • What is the market position of Highview Power in Liquid Air Energy Storage?

    Highview Power is the market leader in Liquid Air Energy Storage. We built the world’s first fully integrated LAES pilot plant, which operated from 2011- 2014, the world’s first grid scale facility commissioned in 2018, and have developed class-leading supply chain partnerships to design, build, operate and maintain our LAES product.

  • What patents does Highview Power own to protect its IP?

    Highview Power owns a range of patents covering its proprietary LAES technology at system, sub-system and component level, including protection of the integration of LAES with other thermal processes and process improvements relating both to the practical challenges associated with developing the technology, and to enhancing the system to meet the demands of different markets.

    Highview Power’s growing patent portfolio extends to some 15 patent families, and over 35 granted patents globally.