Energy Storage Deployment and Benefits in the Chinese Electricity Market Considering Renewable Energy Uncertainty and Energy Storage Life Cycle Costs

The construction and development of energy storage are crucial areas in the reform of China’s power system. However, one of the key issues hindering energy storage investments is the ambiguity of revenue sources and the inaccurate estimation of returns. In order to facilitate investors’ understanding of revenue sources and returns on investment of energy storage in the existing electricity market, this study has established multiple relevant revenue quantification models. The research methodology employed in this paper consists of three main components: Firstly, we established a revenue model and a cost model for energy storage participation in the electricity market. These models focus on arbitrage revenue, subsidy revenue, auxiliary services revenue, investment cost, operational and maintenance cost, and auxiliary service cost of energy storage. Subsequently, we utilized an enhanced Grey Wolf Optimizer algorithm to solve the optimization problem and maximize revenue, thus obtaining the optimal capacity and revenue scale of energy storage in the electricity market. Finally, we compared the whole-lifecycle ROI of different energy storage options in various scenarios. The evaluation results demonstrate that the difference between peak and off-peak loads impacts the investment demand and charging/discharging depth of energy storage. In addition, the discrepancy between peak and off-peak prices affects the arbitrage return of energy storage. These two factors can serve as criteria for energy storage investors to assess their return expectations. When solely considering economic returns and disregarding technical factors, pumped storage energy storage emerges as the most suitable mechanical energy storage option requiring investment. The main contribution of this study lies in the estimation of the lifecycle investment returns for various energy storage technologies in the Chinese electricity market, thus providing valuable insights for the investment and operational practices of market participants.