2014 was a landmark year for the energy storage industry. We heard energy storage talked about more often and with more interest, and we saw utilities choose storage over traditional resources. At AES, we are pleased to continue this momentum and to bring the benefits of energy storage to more customers with the recent unveiling of our 2015 roadmap for grid-storage around the world.
Working with utilities and power system operators, we can create a more modern and resilient grid by incorporating better and more innovative solutions. We need a grid that is clean, unbreakable and resilient. A grid that is a dependable, flexible and reliable must be equipped to deliver power from the most efficient sources, and do so in a way that is cost-effective. Energy storage offers us an ideal solution – opening up new possibilities in the power sector. In eight years of operating grid-scale energy storage, we have seen this firsthand.
We recently announced plans to bring online more than 520 MWs of energy storage resources. This announcement is our biggest and most exciting yet, as we enter new markets in both Europe and the United States. These growing relationships with utilities and grid operators are a testament to the ability of storage to reliably modernize the power system, lower costs and solve a myriad of grid challenges.
As utilities, planners and operators throughout the world prepare for the grid of the future, storage is the smartest choice to achieve that goal. Costing less than a traditional generation source, coupled with efficiency, renewable integration, scalability and emissions benefits, we are confident this is only the beginning of storage’s potential in power markets around the world.
This is a very exciting time for the energy industry and we are proud to be helping lead the way towards a better grid, accelerating a more innovative and promising future. We look forward to continuing this conversation at this week’s ESA annual conference. We invite you to join us as we continue our work to transform the electric grid. #ChooseStorage
