Liquid Air Energy Storage
Pumped Hydro Capability
No Geographical Constraints
2017
www.highview-power.com
In Operation: The Pilot Plant ran from 2011—
2014 connected to SSE’s biomass facility near
London. Relocated to the Centre for Cryogenic
Energy Storage at the University of Birmingham.
In Build: A new 5MW pre-commercial LAES technology
demonstrator with project partners, Viridor at their
landfill gas site at Pilsworth in Greater Manchester, UK.
In the Future: The LAES GigaPlant.
200MW/1.2GWh. Tomorrow’s storage
using today’s technology.
Contents
Large scale, long duration energy storage 5
Introduction to LAES 6—9
Waste Heat & Waste Cold 10
Projects 11—13
Scale Up 14
Commercial Partners 15
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© Highview Enterprises Ltd 2017 3
Highview Company Brochure 2017
Highview Timeline
Head office: Highview Power Storage | Golden Cross House, 8 Duncannon Street, London WC2N 4JF
US office: Highview Power Storage | Urban Future Lab, 15 MetroTech Center – 19th Floor, Brooklyn, NY 11201
www.highview-power.com | +44 (0) 207 484 5600 |[email protected]
4 © Highview Enterprises Ltd 2017
Large scale, long duration energy storage
The need for large scale, long duration energy storage
‘The electric grid and the requirements to manage to illustrate these changing conditions. Net load is the
it are changing. Renewable resources increasingly difference between forecasted load and expected
satisfy the state’s electricity demand. Existing and electricity production from variable generation
emerging technology enables consumer control resources. In certain times of the year, these curves
of electricity consumption. These factors lead to produce a “belly” appearance in the mid-afternoon
different operating conditions that require flexible that quickly ramps up to produce an “arch” similar to
resource capabilities to ensure green grid reliability. the neck of a duck—hence the industry moniker of
The ISO created future scenarios of net load curves “The Duck Chart”.’ California ISO CommPR/HS/10.2013
The Duck Curve
Graph courtesy of CAISO Graph courtesy of ScottMadden Inc.
CAISO’s analysis of actual and projected electric load from 2012- Actual average hourly production data from CAISO from January
2020 to understand how increasing penetrations of renewables 2011 to June 2016 - the duck curve is real and growing faster
will impact grid conditions. than expected.
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Liquid Air Energy Storage
Key Benefits
30+ years lifetime Lowest cost
with mature components at utility scale
60% efficiency 70%+ efficiency
in standalone configuration by utilising waste heat or cold
Ready to deploy Zero emissions
with an established supply chain and benign materials
Can be built Large-scale
anywhere GW and GWh
Alternative Energy Storage Technologies
Different storage technologies cover different needs. LAES sits comfortably in the middle offering medium to
large scale storage solutions that can be located at the point of demand. Below is a comparison chart showing
the different energy storage technologies and the size ranges they can offer.
6 © Highview Enterprises Ltd 2017
LAES Applications
LAES: Helping to balance the grid
1. Power Generation 2. Transmission
• Managing intermittent renewable • Ancillary services
generation • Transmission constraints
• Energy Arbitrage • Inertia services
• Peak shaving • Responsive flexibility services
3. Distribution 4. End Users
LAES can provide power reliability and
• Reactive power energy management to commercial and
industrial end users. In particular, LAES is
• Voltage support
well suited for energy intensive industries
• Local security
that have low-grade heat or waste cold
• Distribution losses available, for example thermal generation
and LNG terminals.
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Liquid Air Energy Storage (LAES): Our Process Liquid Air Energy Storage (LAES): Our Process
Highview’s LAES system comprises of three primary processes:
1.) Charging System 2.) Energy Store 3.) Power Recovery
Thermal store
The low boiling point of liquefied air means the round trip efficiency
of the system can be improved with the introduction of above
ambient heat. Highview’s standard LAES system captures and
stores heat produced during the liquefaction process (stage 1)and
integrates this heat to the power recovery process (stage 3). The
system can also integrate waste heat from industrial processes such
as thermal power generation or steel mills.
Stage 2. Energy store
The liquid air is stored in an insulated tank at low
pressure, which functions as the energy store.
This equipment is already globally deployed
Stage 1. Charging the system for bulk storage of liquid nitrogen, oxygen and
LNG. The tanks used within industry have the
The charging system comprises of an air liquefier,
potential to hold GWh of stored energy.
which uses electrical energy to draw air from the
surrounding environment. During this stage, the
air is cleaned and cooled to subzero temperatures
until the air liquefies. 700 litres of ambient air
become 1 litre of liquid air.
Stage 3. Power recovery
Cold recycle
When power is required, liquid air is drawn from the tank(s)
and pumped to high pressure. Stored heat from the air During stage 3, very cold air is exhausted and
liquefier is applied to the liquid air via heat exchangers and an captured by our proprietary high-grade cold store.
intermediate heat transfer fluid. This produces a high pressure This is used at a later time to enhance the efficiency
gas, which is then used to drive a turbine. of the liquefaction process. Alternatively, the system
can integrate waste cold from industrial processes
such as LNG terminals.
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Waste Heat and Waste Cold
Waste Cold
Waste cold is produced primarily during the regasification of Liquefied Natural Gas, or LNG. During
this regasification process, vast amounts of cold is wasted and as such operators are looking
at smarter and more efficient ways of harnessing this cold. As Highview’s LAES technology is a
thermodynamic process we can harvest this waste stream and make use of it during our re-charging
phase.
During the re-charge of the Liquid Air tanks, the waste cold is used to reduce the amount of work
the refrigerators have to do. The effect of this is a reduced amount of power consumption during
re-charge and a higher overall round trip efficiency.
Waste Heat
If there is a waste heat stream available, the LAES system can utilise this during the discharge of the
system. The effect of injecting this waste heat into the expanding air makes more work available
to the generators, thus creating more power from the same amount of Liquid Air. This improves
the round trip efficiency considerably, and potentially reduces the CAPEX of the LAES plant by not
having to harvest our own waste heat from compression during the re-charge of the system.
The higher the grade of heat available, the better the performance of the LAES system. This provides
a flexible Energy Storage plant that can be operated as a stand-alone plant, co-located near industrial
waste heat applications or integrated into power plants, such as the GE Peaking Plant application.
~ 60% 70% >100%
Stand-alone Peaking Plant LNG + Waste Heat
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Applications: Peaking Plants and LNG
Peaking Plant Application
LNG Application
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Projects: Pilot Plant
Pilot Plant
Highview successfully tested and demonstrated its fully operational LAES pilot plant (350kW/2.5MWh) at SSE’s
80MW biomass plant at Slough Heat and Power in Greater London from 2011-2014. The plant was built to
prove the technology, was connected to the UK grid and complied with all the necessary regulations and
inspections. It successfully underwent a full testing regime, including automated performance testing for the
US PJM electricity market. It has operated for the hours equivalent to three years of UK Short Term Operating
Reserve service and seasonal TRIAD management in the winter months. Heat from SSE’s 80MW biomass plant
was used to improve the efficiency of the system.
The pilot plant has now been relocated to the University of Birmingham’s new Birmingham Centre for Cryogenic
Energy Storage where it will support further testing and academic research.
12 © Highview Enterprises Ltd 2017
Projects: Pre-commercial Demonstrator
Pre-Commercial Demonstrator
In February 2014, Highview and project partners, recycling and renewable energy company Viridor, were
awarded more than £8 million ($13.5m) of funding from the UK Government to build a 5MW pre-commercial
LAES technology system. The funding is supporting the design, build and testing of the LAES Pre-Commercial
Demonstrator alongside Viridor’s landfill gas generation plant at Pilsworth Landfill facility in Greater Manchester,
UK. In addition to providing energy storage, the liquid air plant will harvest low-grade waste heat from the
landfill gas engines and convert it to power.
The project will operate for at least 1 year and will demonstrate LAES servicing a number of balancing services,
including Short Term Operating Reserve (STOR), Triad avoidance (supporting the grid during the winter
peaks) and testing for US regional regulation markets. Work on the project began in February 2015 and with
commissioning currently underway it is expected to be online in early 2018.
In August 2017, Innovate UK, the UK’s innovation agency, awarded Highview £1.5 million to develop a new
hybrid LAES system using supercapacitors and flywheels at the Pre-Commercial Demonstrator. This will help
demonstrate LAES’s ability to compete with battery systems in terms of response time and broadens the range
of services which LAES can supply, such as National Grid’s frequency response services. The aim of the project
is to test performance and economics and it will be operational by Summer 2018.
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Scale Up: GigaPlant 200MW/1.2GWh
The GigaPlant 200MW/1.2GWh
The new GigaPlant has evolved from the experiences learnt in designing and building Highview’s first 2 plants;
4 years of operating experience from the pilot plant; and also the new government funded project, the 5MW
pre-commercial LAES technology demonstrator. The system was designed using a proven process model and
major OEM suppliers have been approached to supply the significant components including: GE, MAN Diesel
& Turbo, Siemens, Nikkiso, Heatric, Atlas Copco and Chart.
Footprint Comparison
Boxes represent size of a LAES plant
compared to other large scale energy
storage technologies.
HFB/VRFB — Flow batteries
CAES — Compressed Air Energy Storage
PHS — Pumped Hydro Storage
14 © Highview Enterprises Ltd 2017
Commercial Partners
Highview Power Storage Inc.
Highview opened its first US office in 2017, through a business incubation programme, ACRE, a hub for
smart cities, smart grid and clean energy. Highview will be working with ACRE to continue growth into the US
market, a key market for LAES technology. ACRE is a part of the Urban Future Lab at the NYU Tandon School of
Engineering. For more information: ufl.nyc
GE Oil & Gas
In 2014 Highview signed a global licencing and technology collaboration agreement with GE Oil & Gas, to
explore opportunities to integrate LAES technology in peaker power plants where GE gas turbines and gas
engines are currently or will be installed. For more information please visit the LAES technology page.
About Highview
Founded in 2005, Highview Power Storage is a privately owned, award-winning technology company located
in Central London, UK. Highview has developed and owns the Intellectual Property to a novel, large scale long
duration Liquid Air Energy Storage (LAES) system that uses liquefied air as a storage medium.
The company can design bespoke plants ranging from around 5MW output and 15MWh of storage capacity
to more than 200MW+ output and 1.2GWh+ of capacity. In addition to storage, Highview systems can utilise
industrial waste heat/cold from applications such as thermal generation plants, steel mills and LNG terminals
to improve the systems’ efficiency.
Highview’s technology draws heavily on established processes from the turbo-machinery, power generation
and industrial gas sectors. The components and sub-systems of Highview’s processes can be readily sourced
from large OEMs and have proven life times and performances.
The company is led by a strong management team with industry experience that can not only design and
deliver reliable projects, but also explore new technological developments, secure new IP, grant funding, and
business development. For more information please visit the company website: www.highview-power.com
© Highview Enterprises Ltd 2017 15
Liquid Air Energy Storage
Large scale, long duration
Highview Power Storage | Golden Cross House, 8 Duncannon Street, London WC2N 4JF
www.highview-power.com | +44 (0) 207 484 5600 |[email protected]
