Use Cases: Four-hour Discharge Cycles to Meet Peak Energy Usage

One of the potential applications for energy storage systems is peak shaving, which involves charging batteries during off-peak hours when electricity prices are low and discharging them during peak hours when prices are high. This can help reduce demand charges and increase the revenue for energy storage owners. A common scenario for peak shaving is a four-hour discharge cycle from 5 pm to 9 pm, when the electricity demand is usually the highest.

How do vanadium flow batteries (VFBs) compare to lithium-ion batteries for this use case?

Here is a summary:

From the table, it is clear that VFBs have several advantages over lithium-ion batteries for four-hour discharge cycles, despite their higher initial capital costs. VFBs can offer more cost savings and revenue opportunities over the long term due to their much longer lifespan, higher cycle life, lower operational and maintenance costs and higher energy arbitrage potential. VFBs are also more flexible and safer than lithium-ion batteries, as they can scale energy and power independently, discharge to nearly 100% of their capacity and are not subject to the risk of thermal runaway.

Therefore, VFBs are a more suitable and cost-effective choice for four-hour discharge cycles to meet peak energy usage, especially for consistent, daily peak shaving applications.