PSEG to tap market potential of CAES

PSEG Global has joined hands with energy storage specialist Dr. Michael Nakhamkin for a new joint venture.

The JV, called Energy Storage and Power LLC (ES&P), will exclusively market, licence, support the development and supervise project execution of the second generation of Compressed Air Energy Storage (CAES) technology.

Roy Daniel has been appointed as the chief executive officer to lead the venture.

Nakhamkin, who led the design and technical implementation of North America’s only CAES plant in McIntosh, Alabama, will be the chief technology officer.

Nakhamkin felt that the timing is right technically, environmentally and economically for a large-scale deployment of ES&P’s CAES technology.

“PSEG has the expertise and financial resources to bring this technology out of the development stage and into the deployment stage,” he said.

According to PSEG, the second-generation CAES technology offers following features:

· Greater scalability and a lower capital cost per megawatt-hour of power storage relative to other power storage technologies;
· A rapid power response rate, which is critical to enhancing grid stability and compensating for the intermittency of renewable energy resources such as wind and solar;
· The ability to arbitrage the difference between off-peak and on-peak power prices, a difference that has been increasing over time; and
· The use of proven, multi-source, standard components applied in a novel configuration resulting in lower capital cost with established processes and procedures.

According to redorbit.com, PSEG has committed $20 million over three years to the venture, and the amount could go higher.