Energy resilience in the modern grid: Protect your business with backup power

Current State of Affairs 

The modern world is critically dependent on electrical energy. Heating, water supply, food storage and preparation, lighting, computing, transportation, pumping of fuels etc. Practically everything in the modern world requires electricity at some stage of manufacturing, delivery or usage, and very few of us have any form of redundancy available. 

As renewable energy sources like solar and wind become more prevalent, the power grid faces several challenges. Increasing variability in energy supply leads to: 

• Imbalance and extreme price fluctuations 

• Strain on the grid’s capacity and frequency stability 

• Creation of specialized markets for reserve power, available with sub-second response times 

In addition, electrification—especially in transportation—further exacerbates these issues. Car charging is less predictable than traditional energy consumption and represents a high, unpredictable demand, making the grid more difficult to manage. The grid must be designed to handle peak loads, which often leads to underutilization of capacity during off-peak times. This rising demand is quickly turning the grid into a bottleneck for energy transition. 

What Can You Do? 

If your business is sensitive to power outages, employing a backup system is a wise investment. Sudden loss of service can be costly, both in terms of material loss and disruption of business initiatives. Here are a couple of solutions: 

• Local energy storage system

  A system with islanding capabilities (automatic backup) can detect grid power loss, disconnect from the grid, and enter “grid forming mode,” providing power from stored energy. 

• EV charger installations

  Installing an energy storage solution can buffer energy when grid capacity is available. This is especially valuable for heavy EVs (e.g., trailer trucks) that require significant power for charging—sometimes as much as 350 kW. 

What Makes This Cost-Effective? 

An energy storage system can prove highly cost-effective for several reasons: 

• Reducing downtime costs: Avoiding costly service interruptions can save time, money, and materials. 

• Energy arbitrage: By strategically trading stored energy, you can lower energy costs by purchasing energy at low prices and using it when prices are high. TGN Aggregate automates this for our customers.
• Revenue from reserve power markets: In Europe, TSOs offer compensation for accessing your system’s stored energy, even if it’s never used. This provides additional income for your business. 

What About the Climate Impact? 

Estimating the climate impact of energy storage solutions, particularly lithium-ion batteries, can be complex. The general consensus is that producing these batteries results in emissions of around: 

• 75–100 g CO2-eq per kWh of battery capacity. 

For context, carbon intensity of energy production varies significantly by region: 

• Norway: 25 g CO2-eq per kWh 

• Poland: 1000 g CO2-eq per kWh 

While this may seem stark, the comparison between battery capacity and power plant output isn’t straightforward. A high-quality lithium-ion battery typically supports between 10,000 and 15,000 charge cycles, and over its lifetime, the climate impact of a lithium-ion battery is approximately 0.01 g CO2-eq per kWh—a figure negligible compared to the margin of error in renewable energy production. 

References 

1. C. Jones, P. Gilbert, L. Stamford, Assessing the Climate Change Mitigation Potential of Stationary Energy Storage for Electricity Grid Services, Environ. Sci. Technol. 54 (2020). 

1. C. Freitas, What is the environmental impact of lithium batteries?, Changeit.App (2023). 

1. V.N. Linder Martin, Nauclér Tomas, Nekovar Stefan, Pfeiffer Alexander, The race to decarbonize electric-vehicle batteries, McKinsey (2023).