From Peak Load to Public Health: What Batteries Are Already Doing for Power Grids - CleanTechnica

The article discusses the evolving role of battery energy storage in power grids, using Ontario as a case study to illustrate how batteries complement traditional storage methods like pumped hydro. Ontario’s long-standing experience with pumped hydro storage, such as the Sir Adam Beck Pump Generating Station, has ingrained an operational approach centered on managing stored electricity to meet peak demand and maintain grid reliability. Batteries build on this foundation by offering faster response times—measured in milliseconds—and greater flexibility, as they can be deployed closer to consumption points and address localized congestion and peak loads more effectively than centralized pumped hydro systems. A key takeaway is that peak demand, rather than total annual energy consumption, primarily drives grid infrastructure costs. Transmission and distribution assets must be sized for peak loads, which occur only briefly but require costly overbuilding and lead to underutilized capacity. Batteries help flatten these demand peaks by charging during low-demand periods and discharging during high-demand times, thus increasing the utilization of existing infrastructure and reducing the need for new capital investments