Modelling and evaluating of Compressed Air Energy Storage System
Abstract
With the worldwide increase on the use of renewable energy, efficient energy storage is
needed to include intermittent renewable energy sources, such as wind and solar energy.
One of the energy storage technologies that could solve this is the use of Compressed Air
Energy Storage (CAES) systems. An Adiabatic Compressed Air Energy Storage (ACAES) system has been analyzed in this report. The air is stored in a cavern of constant
volume, and the heat produced by the compression of air in the charge process is stored
in a packed bed and used to reheat the air for energy production in the discharge part.
This report presents a preliminary thermodynamic analysis estimating the size of the
system for a given quantity of energy storage, a dynamic model including the packed bed
for energy storage, and a simulation made in MATLAB to analyze the efficiency of the
system. The traditional CAES has a roundtrip efficiency between 40-54%, while for the
A-CAES analyzed in this report, the roundtrip efficiency is 53.4%. The physical
limitations of the equipment (operation temperature and pressure of the required
compressors and turbo expanders) were taken into account in this model. A preliminary
cost estimation of the system was conducted, and the cost estimation was 2 699
NOK/kWh.