Pumped Thermal Electricity Storage (PTES) is a grid-scale energy storage device. During charge, grid electricity is used to drive a heat pump which creates hot and cold storage. Electricity is thereby stored in a thermal potential. The storage is discharged by reversing the cycle and operating a heat engine between the two stores. Compared to other bulk thermo-mechanical storage technologies, PTES is not geographically restricted, can achieve reasonably high round-trip efficiencies, energy and power densities, and can use cheap, abundant, non-toxic materials as the storage media.

A variety of PTES concepts exist, which may use Joule-Brayton cycles, steam Rankine cycles, or supercritical/transcritical CO~2~ cycles, for example. Similarly, a variety of storage materials may be used, such as molten salts, thermal oils, glycols, packed beds of pebbles, or concrete.

In this presentation, a thermo-economic tool for the analysis of PTES systems will be described. This model includes detailed technical models of the main system components, such as compression and expansion machinery, heat exchangers, storage tanks, and packed beds. The system economics (such as total capital cost and levelized cost of storage) are evaluated using a variety of component cost models, and this approach enables the uncertainty to be quantified.

Techno-economic results will be presented for several PTES concepts, including a recuperated Joule-Brayton cycle with two-tank liquid storage, a Joule-Brayton cycle with packed-bed thermal storage, and a supercritical-CO~2~ cycle. The tool allows the performance and cost of these various systems to be fairly compared to one another, and informs the future development of these energy storage devices.


Techno-Economic Modelling of Pumped Thermal Electricity Storage

Division / Sponsor:
Advanced Energy Systems Division (AESD) & Solar Energy Division (SED)

Paper Proceedings: https://asmedigitalcollection.asme.org/ES/ES2020/volume/83631

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