Chile''s installed base of 64megawatts and 79megawatt-hours of storage (based on figures from BloombergNEF) is puny compared to the U.S. or China, for instance. But the country is already grappling with issues more commonly seen in much larger markets.
Chile has along, narrow geographical footprint — the country extends 2,653miles from north to south, but is only 217miles wide at its broadest point. As aresult, most of its renewable resources are located far from areas of high electricity demand. This heightens the need for the buffer of energy storage to support weak interconnections across the country''s southern, central and northern grids.
At the same time, the country''s ambitious decarbonization plans, which include axing 65 percent of coal generation from its energy mix by 2025, have accelerated demand for the kind of long-duration storage assets that are only just beginning to emerge in more advanced markets.
One of the country''s more eye-catching proposals is to convert coal plants to massive Carnot batteries, atype of thermal storage. This plan would see coal generation being replaced with molten salt thermal storage as the power source for steam turbines.
The concept has been in development since 2018, when Chilean consultancy Inodú carried out astudy for German development agency Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) on new uses for Chile''s relatively young coal power plantfleet.
GIZ and the German Aerospace Center (Deutsches Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt) have calculated that Chilean coal plant operators Engie and AES Gener could provide Carnot-battery-based energy at acost of between $80 and $100 per megawatt-hour. That''s flirting with cost-effective pricing against the primary shorter-duration energy storage from lithium-ion batteries.
These costs are still more expensive than coal-fired power, at between $63 and $76 per megawatt-hour, or natural-gas-fired generation, at between $65 to $91, but are still low enough to "open possibilities and private-sector interest in starting tests on the ground," local media has reported.
Vicente Javier Giorgio, chief operating officer for AES'' South American operations, which include AES Gener, said the only thing missing is aregulatory framework to reward Carnot batteries not only for energy storage but also for providing grid inertia — akey grid-balancing feature of spinning generators like coal- and gas-fired power plants.
"We want to take advantage of the coal plants we have, some of which are new, and carry on using the steam turbines, generating the steam from molten salt heated by renewable energy," he said in an interview. "But that requires alot of investment."
To convert a250-megawatt coal plant to molten salt would cost around $200 million, he said. "There needs to be an auction for assets that can provide inertia," he said. "If Iget acontract for 20years of inertia, then Ican pay off the investment."
AES Gener is no stranger to working with Chilean regulators on the evolution of the country''s energy storage market. The company was the first to introduce lithium-ion battery storage into the country, scoping the market in 2007 and installing an initial 12megawatts of 20-minute utility-scale battery capacity at its Norgener coal plant in northern Chile in2009.
AES Gener repeated this trick at two other northern Chile coal plants, installing 20megawatts of 20-minute battery capacity at the 554-megawatt Electrica Angamos plant in 2012 and asimilar volume at the 531-megawatt Cochrane Power Station in2016.
Still working with lithium-ion battery storage, AES Gener last year introduced anew concept to the Chilean market. Its $14 million "virtual reservoir" pilot project provided 10megawatts with 5hours of storage and was installed behind the meter at the company''s Alfalfal hydro plant southeast of Santiago.
Based on the success of the pilot, AES Gener is looking to expand the Alfalfal virtual reservoir up to 40megawatts and is pondering an installation of up to 200megawatts of battery storage at its new Alto Maipo hydro plant, 30miles from Santiago.
Alongside upcoming virtual reservoir projects, AES Gener this year plans to complete the installation 112megawatts of 5-hour storage at its 180-megawatt Andes Solar II BPV plant in Antofagasta. It will be the biggest battery project in Latin America, Giorgio said.
The first scheme, for stand-alone battery systems, allows asset owners to carry out energy arbitrage and sell ancillary services. Asecond, for energy storage integrated with renewable energy plants, also rewards power capacity.
And finally, Chile''s energy regulator (Comisión Nacional de Energía or CNE) can pay for energy storage assets to support grid infrastructure. This last market is being targeted by Hydrostor, aCanadian compressed-air energy storage player.
"We were first attracted to the market about four years ago, when the regulator said, ''We need 500megawatts of 13-hour storage,''" Norman said in an interview. "That''s right in our bailiwick. We''ve been working our way through the regulated process since."
Hydrostor is working on two possible grid-strengthening projects, to be located next to the Pozo Almonte and Lagunas substations on Chile''s northern grid. The company has proposed 250- and 500-megawatt projects, each with 8hours of storage.
"We''re like alocatable pumped hydro asset," Norman said. "If there are fossil plants shutting down or there''s atransmission line that is going to be really expensive to replace, this is abetter solution."
The challenge for now is to get the CNE to see things this way. Progress has been slow, but Norman is upbeat about the prospects. "Storage is areally cost-effective alternative," said Norman. "That''s what we''re working on with the regulator rightnow."
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