O MME (Ministry of Mines and Energy) intends to coordinate with other bodies in the electrical sector carrying out a sandbox (experimental environment) for energy storage, including greenfield and brownfield projects, in the latter case using as a base the project implemented by ISA Cteep in a substation in Registro, in the interior of São Paulo.
The information is from Thiago Prado, director of Planning and Grants for Transmission and Distribution of Electric Energy at the Ministry, who participated this Wednesday (14) in a webinar on energy storage promoted by ANEEL (National Electric Energy Agency).
According to the MME representative, storage technology will provide optimization of the existing electrical infrastructure, with the postponement of investments in expansion, flexibility to deal with variations in supply and demand and reduction of operating costs.
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For Prato, in addition to planning, sectoral coordination is necessary so that there is due political, regulatory, operational appropriation and the definition of commercial models for products and services for this new technology.
According to Christiano Vieira da Silva, director of Operations at ONS (National Electric System Operator), an alternative to study is the feasibility of using energy storage systems with batteries installed at strategic points on the grid to take advantage of part of the energy that would be prevented from generating, from charging these batteries during a period of restriction, dispatching it at another period when it is more convenient.
“Some known cases recur. In addition to wind and photovoltaic plants in the Northeast, we have turbine energy from Tucuruí and Belo Monte, practically throughout the wet period, mainly in light loads,” said Vieira. For him, energy storage plays a fundamental role in improving the stability, flexibility and reliability of the electrical system operation.
In the view of Carmem Sanches, Deputy Secretary of Innovation and Energy Transition of the ANEEL, the main challenge of storage regulation is to capture the economic benefits of technologies and overcome investment, operation and maintenance costs. The expert suggests holding auctions that allow the participation of storage resources and other flexible technologies as a regulatory suggestion.
A ANEEL recalls that in 2016 a Strategic Research and Development Program for energy storage was carried out, with five years to be implemented. At the time, there were 29 proposals, with investments of around R$558 million. Some projects were only completed this year due to delays caused by the Covid-19 pandemic.
