Energy Storage and Power has formed a joint venture to exclusively market, license, support the development and supervise project execution of the second generation of Compressed Air Energy Storage (CAES) technology.

CAES technology stores off-peak energy, in the form of compressed air in an underground reservoir, and releases this energy during peak hours. CAES can be used for load management of intermittent renewable energy resources or as a stand-alone intermediate generation source for capturing energy arbitrage, capacity payments and ancillary services.

Energy Storage and Power’s patented second generation CAES technology works by draining excess energy extracted from the power grid at off-peak times. The energy runs compressors that pump air in massive underground caverns. During the day when energy demand peaks the underground air is released and heated to run turbines. The whole process uses 200 MW of power from compressed air and the remaining power from natural gas.

* Greater scalability and a lower capital cost per megawatt-hour of power storage relative to other power storage technologies;
* A rapid power response rate, which is critical to enhancing grid stability and compensating for the intermittency of renewable energy resources such as wind and solar;
* The ability to arbitrage the difference between off-peak and on-peak power prices, a difference that has been increasing over time; and
* The use of proven, multi-source, standard components applied in a novel configuration resulting in lower capital cost with established processes and procedures.

ES&P will license its technology to customers, as well as optimize the performance of CAES plants and provide technical support throughout the CAES project design, development and construction process. Potential customers of ES&P’s CAES technology include electric utility companies, independent power producers, wind developers and transmission owners.