The inclusion of home energy storages by the “My Current” (Polish: Mój Prąd) scheme is a good first step to give a boost to the market. For long-term development, it is important to set up market incentives so that a prosumer with a physical energy storage facility, i.e. a flexibilizer, can become an active player in the energy market and draw financial benefits from it. In her commentary for GLOBENERGIA, the President of the PSME talks the reasons why home energy storage facilities are needed in the Polish power system even today and why so few of them are installed.
Home power storages have appeared in the commercial offer of many companies, e.g. by introduction of battery power storages. The market is already working on the development of this area, but we still lack the regulations that would support the development of energy storage. Is this some kind of stalemate? Barbara Adamska, President of the Polish Energy Storage Association, reflects on the pages of GLOBEnergia.pl.
The technology has reached maturity
As the representative of the PSME points out, the examples quoted leave no doubt that the energy storage technology is mature, the products are refined, and the companies are ready to launch them on the market. Even more so, they already offer them on commercial terms. Yet, a business model that translates into real demand is still missing.
Is there such a demand from prosumers? Adamska explains that the current system of discounts for prosumers, i.e. the possibility of introducing energy to the grid by a prosumer and taking it back within a year, makes the grid an energy store for the prosumer. However, for using the grid as a storage, the prosumer has to give up 20% or 30% of the energy they have introduced into the grid; the proportion depends on the power of their microinstallation (below or above 10 kWh). We could say that the prosumer receives a free energy storage with an efficiency of 80% or 70%. The efficiency of 70-80% is not impressive, and the energy storages available on the market offer much more in this respect. However, in the discount system, the prosumer receives such a storage at no charge for 15 years, and, on top of that, they are not responsible for any repairs, meanwhile the storage maintains its efficiency at an unchanged level throughout this term.