BESS & Demand Response | What’s the Connection?

Renewables comprise an increasing share of the energy mix globally, but their intermittent nature, meaning renewable energy cannot consistently produce energy throughout the day upon request, can unbalance grids. When energy demand does not align with renewables supply, the risk of blackouts increases. While other energy sources can compensate for the shortfall,  keeping the lights on at peak times often requires expensive and polluting fossil fuels. 

A just energy transition requires a fully sustainable energy system, and for that reason, we are seeing an increasing need for storage and flexibility to strengthen grids and enable more renewables to power them. An increasingly popular solution is combining large-scale adoption of battery energy storage systems (BESS) and flexibility services, such as demand response. 

European countries are turning to BESS and flexibility solutions as a better way to manage increased demand while maintaining a balanced grid and a renewable and secure energy system. It’s projected that by 2030, Europe will add over 50GW of BESS capacity. 

What is Demand Response?

Simply put, demand response is a change in electricity consumption by consumers,  such as commercial and industrial businesses, to help keep the supply and demand of electricity in balance. Balancing the grid is essential to ensure a secure, continuous energy supply. Maintaining a grid frequency of 50Hz has traditionally been achieved by fossil fuel power plants by increasing generation when demand is high and decreasing generation when demand slows. 

Unlike gas and coal, renewables are not as easily dialed up or down as needed. However, the energy they generate can be stored, managed, and dispatched, while energy use is monitored and modified to keep the grid stable. This is the goal of demand response programmes.  At the energy consumer level, demand response requires industrial and commercial businesses to shift their energy-intensive processes and the use of power-hungry equipment to off-peak times when possible. Those energy-intensive consumers usually work with flexibility services providers and are paid by the grid operator for providing this service. 

Flexibility services providers (like Sympower) can provide demand response on an even greater scale by aggregating larger numbers of individual energy users. 

By monitoring and adjusting energy consumption in real-time and tapping into battery storage when necessary, such providers also enable real-time balancing of the grid frequency.

What are BESS (Battery Energy Storage Systems)?

Battery energy storage systems (BESS) support shifting energy consumption when demand is high and generation low by storing excess energy when production is high for later use. In times of peak energy use, a battery can respond to grid frequency deviations in about a quarter of a second. This makes them a keystone technology in providing real-time balancing of the grid. 

Across Europe, BESS projects are seeing a new wave of investment, and by 2030, Germany and Italy are projected to install about 21GW and 9GW of BESS, while Greece has a pipeline of BESS projects that amount to 27GW of storage.

Although BESS is set to scale dramatically, there are still major hurdles for the technology to overcome drawbacks.

– Firstly, battery infrastructure projects need substantial investment and enough market confidence that capital will be covered by future revenues. 

– Secondly, the raw materials required to build the technology are scarce and difficult to extract. However, increased recycling schemes for lithium-ion batteries could alleviate some of these issues and lead to greater carbon savings as manufacturers find more effective ways to recycle materials.  For example, in the Netherlands, the so-called “Buffalo” battery is expected to save up to 23,000 tonnes of CO₂ emissions per year.  

Today, BESS is the most common energy storage technology. Energy analysts and technologists say that advanced, more energy-dense batteries – along with energy management and flexibility – are the keys to integrating more clean energy into the grid. 

Combining BESS and demand response to drive the energy transition 

Demand response and BESS can be complementary technologies to scale up clean energy. Investment in BESS has ramped up significantly in recent years, and demand response is now being more widely adopted due to its accessibility, affordability, and effectiveness. 

Demand response is highly cost-effective as a flexibility solution because, unlike BESS,  it doesn’t require investment in new assets. Instead, it unlocks the energy consumers’ existing flexibility. Previously, large-scale industrial consumers have been the primary participants in demand response by carrying out manual load shedding in the event of an impending grid emergency. 

Now, technological advancements have unlocked even greater potential for real-time energy monitoring and modification using much larger numbers of smaller-scale consumers.

Europe and the United States are currently the global leaders in rolling out these demand response programmes.  The European Union has green-lit an action plan to digitise energy systems and open up data access for wider demand response across the bloc, and promote the use of energy-smart appliances to boost demand response participation. 

Additionally, the European Commission approved a German measure allowing network operators to enter into flexible contracts with customers for a total of 1500 MW capacity, while the UK’s National Grid Demand Flexibility Service enrolled 1.6 million participants last winter. 

Powerful partners: demand response and BESS 

Managing energy through flexibility solutions is critical for the energy transition and a secure energy future. Responding to increased demand would conventionally mean building additional capacity, but this is no longer a practical approach. Modern grids must meet demand in a smarter way, utilising both flexibility solutions and BESS. 

BESS and demand response share complementary features: rapid response times, high ramp rate, and – unlike conventional generators – flexible upward and downward energy management. These abilities combined present a promising and powerful partnership to facilitate and integrate more renewables into the grid while balancing frequency during peak demand. 

Using this two-pronged approach, battery storage can harness surplus energy at times of naturally low demand and release it at peak times, while demand response can collectively shift and monitor energy use to keep the grid balanced. 

BESS is already being used to balance energy imbalances occurring over a time frame of up to four hours, and it can also be used to respond to shorter imbalances through flexibility services.  In fact, the International Energy Agency says that demand response and battery storage combined are expected to meet around a quarter of the world’s grid flexibility needs by 2030. By 2050, this could rise to half. 

This makes both demand response and BESS absolutely crucial, not just to the net-zero transition but to the stability of power grids around the world. 

About the author

Simon Bushell is Sympower‘s Founder and CEO. Simon founded Sympower in 2015, with the vision of a world powered by a truly sustainable energy system. He built the company from the ground up, acquiring a wealth of knowledge and first-hand experience in driving energy transition through innovative solutions in grid flexibility and renewable energy integration. Outside of Sympower, Simon sat on the inaugural committee of de Jonge Klimaatbeweging, the Dutch Youth Climate Movement, and is a published researcher on the subject of climate change communication.

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