Utility-scale battery energy storage systems have been growing quickly as a source of electric power in the United States in recent years, the U.S. Energy Information Administration reports.
In the first seven months of 2024, operators added 5 gigawatts of capacity to the U.S. electric power grid, the EIA said Sept. 5. In 2010, only 4 megawatts of utility-scale battery energy storage were added in the United States.
“Battery energy storage systems provide electricity to the power grid and offer a range of services to support electric power grids,” the EIA said. “Among these services are balancing supply and demand, moving electricity from periods of low prices to periods of high prices (a strategy known as arbitrage), and allowing electricity from renewable sources, such as wind and solar, to be stored until needed instead of curtailing those sources at times when they produce more electricity than is consumed.”
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