Sensitivity analysis of adiabatic compressed air energy storage

The increasing use of fluctuating renewable energy represents a challenge for the German electricity market. Electricity storage plants can provide flexibility to the energy system and the development of new, efficient and economical energy storage technologies is of great importance. In this paper, the use of compressed air energy storage plants in the German electricity market is simulated and a sensitivity analysis is carried out. The optimization of the system is done to minimize at each time step the total system costs. The analysis shows the influence of storage plant parameters such as efficiency, storage capacity and natural gas usage on the dispatch and operation hours. It is performed over one year and for three different future scenarios. The results indicate that utilization of storage plants will increase in each scenario considered from 2025 to 2035 but remains in most cases significantly below the maximum capacity of 3000 h/a power generation. While the operation of storage plants lowers the total electricity cost, earnings per plant and profits are not necessarily positive: the wholesale price signals do not create enough revenues to justify the investment in CAES plants.