(Electric) Storage Week

Co-Publishers Note: Well I am here amongst a room full of power company execs, state utility regulators, grid engineers, and other rocket scientist types (virtually all male I observe), along with a load of entrepreneurial types who each seems to have a logical and viable solution to store freshly made electric (aha Storage Week) which if implemented will maximize the electricity that is currently generated, and make sure that all the additional power generated over and above the base by newly fashionable sustainable technologies can be done so as to allow for profit and a seamless integration into what will become the smart grid.

In the past few hours I have been asked many times, �what the heck is The Auto Channel doing here?� - a good and fair question. As many of our regular audience knows, we have been endorsing electric as a major contributor alt fuel to help rid our country and allies of the demonic thumb of big oil that we are unarguably under.

The �are you kidding, electric cars� faction always raises the question of "where we will get the electric power to recharge the future�s tens of millions of cars and trucks?" �so I am here for the next few days (inside and not at the beach) to find out how this need for additional electric can be accommodated without a massive generator construction program.

I have already learned of power storage technologies that will allow your local utility and power generator to time shift their inventory�as an example taking the surplus electric from early morning wind farms and middle of the night over generation and holding it until its needed during peak demand times�this not only makes sense but can make big bucks, because in unregulated electric markets the cost of electric varies by the amount that is requested at that moment� so an opportunity exists to not only help fight against big oil but to help the ecology and our economy as well� what a deal. Stay tuned for further reports.

Storage Week La Jolla CA July 13, 2009; The axiomatic definition of electric power— that it is unique because you must “use it or lose it”— is now defunct. The advent of stationary energy storage is game-changing, a revolution in the making. Energy storage benefits include renewables integration, lower cost and higher efficiencies, carbon reduction and grid reliability.

Federal support and funding for storage projects and R&D is robust, and market design and policy are now shifting to permit monetization of storage’s many system benefits. Billions of dollars in stimulus funding is now in place and billions more in global market potential lie just around the corner.

Infocast’s Storage Week is the business hub where the new partnerships, business models, policies and scale-up strategies will happen. Join decision-makers from utilities, independent developers, investors, technology vendors, system operators, financiers, ESCOs, Smart Grid companies and institutional energy buyers leading the charge in what some call the fundamental reshaping of the power industry. Following last year’s 200-person sold-out event, the expanded programming of Storage Week promises to be the ultimate networking event of the year for anyone with a stake in the scale-up of storage and its integration into the grid.

The two-day Storage Summit (July 13-14) will examine the market design, policy incentives and barriers that apply to all storage systems. Day Two of the Summit is highlighted by two separate tracks -- one devoted to “bulk” storage project development and finance (over 20MW) and one for “distributed” (under 20 MW) storage business models and case studies. Two full-day events follow: Energy Storage Technology and Investment Outlook (July 15) and Storage at the “Edge” - Opportunities on the Customer Side of the Meter (July 16).