Smart grids vs. storage management

Energy storage can provide an alternative to smart grids that is less expensive, more effective, and that can boost the production of energy in both electrical and thermal forms. The extra energy comes mostly from local energy sources like solar heat and heat extracted from the summer air. The electricity is stored by using it to drive heat pumps that boost the exergy of heat stored in a thermal store, subsequently recovering it via grid demand reduction. The storage makes it possible to match the supply and demand for both electrical and thermal loads and it is the synergistic integration of these two functions that makes such systems so economical. Underutilised sources like run-of-the-river hydro generators and solar thermal collectors can be more efficiently utilised and the need to generate enough power to meet peak demands is reduced, which reduces the overall capital costs.