By Andrea Hilsaca
Let’s talk about batteries. Not the batteries in your cell phone or TV remote, but large batteries—the size of semi-trucks—that can provide energy to hundreds of homes and businesses. These types of batteries are known as energy storage systems (ESS), and they can bring huge benefits to communities by improving the resilience of the electric grid and reducing emissions from large, polluting energy sources like oil, coal, and methane gas. Importantly, ESS can address the issue of peaker plants.
Home battery storage vs. large-scale utility battery storage
Left image description: Two Tesla Powerwalls are installed in a basement or garage, with electrical control boxes above them. A man is fiddling with one of the control boxes. Each Tesla Powerwall can provide a few hours of power for a home. Credit: Susan Stocker/Sun Sentinel/Tribune News Service via Getty Images
Right image description: A series of utility-scale batteries, each the size and shape of a semi-truck’s trailer sit on a flat plain surrounded by dirt and grass, with an electrical substation in the background. At full capacity, this utility-scale battery storage system can send 137 MW into the grid over a four-hour period—enough to power 26,000 homes. Credit: RWE
Peaker plants are used to meet sudden spikes in energy demand, often from intense weather events such as arctic blasts and heat waves. To fulfill this specialized purpose, they must ramp up quickly, relying on the dirtiest fuel sources like gas, coal, and oil. And because of this specialized use, they end up operating for just seven to 26 days in an entire year. That may sound like they’re therefore not a huge issue. But ultimately, peakers are heavily polluting, inefficient, and incredibly expensive energy sources.
They also have a history of perpetuating environmental racism. Peaker plants are usually placed near low-income and minority communities, as this Clean Energy Group study found. Their pollution poses significant health risks to nearby residents, exacerbating environmental inequalities. In fact, two-thirds of peakers are located in areas with a high percentage of low-income households. Communities with a majority of people of color (65% or higher) face 44% higher than average emissions rates from peaker plants. These same communities typically also have less access to health care, leading to higher rates of health issues. Peakers do play a crucial role during energy spikes. But they are a last resort—a “use in case of emergencies'' type of power plant, mainly due to the high cost to run them (they have to make money somehow, given they sit around for most of the year). Nobody wants them, they are mostly too old to keep working—they should be retired.
Right image description: a map shows the distribution of 1,199 peaker plants by generation source (gas, oil, and other) based on their proximity to low-income populations. 202 peaker plants are within a 3-mile radius of populations that are 46-93% low-income (a total of 10.2 million people). Credit: Clean Energy Group, Peaker Power Plant Mapping Tool
Left image description: a chart shows the cost to 5 different various energy generation resources over a 24-hour period. In order of cost from lowest to highest: renewables, nuclear, combined cycle, cost, and combustion turbine. Text on the chart states, “Resources are dispatched in order of lowest to highest operating cost (dollars per megawatt hours). In essence, higher-cost assets are used to meet very high demand, and these tend to be fossil fuel-powered. Credit: Enel (2023), What is a peaking power plant?
This is where ESS joins the workforce so peaker plants can finally retire (and hopefully stay on vacation forever somewhere far away). ESS can provide just enough energy to meet peak demand, as peaker plants do currently, by storing cleaner energy and dispatching it during times of peak demand. States like Arizona, Massachusetts, California, and Texas, and organizations like the PEAK coalition in New York are making headway on just this: working to retire peaker plants and replace them with ESS to reduce pollution and emissions, adding flexibility to the grid when it needs it most.
It’s time to demand change and push for policies that prioritize environmental justice. As is the case with most sustainability initiatives, replacing peakers will require a collective effort from many parties including government agencies, environmentalists, engineers, policymakers, and individuals like you and me to push for better solutions. Big change requires big action, and although there are some challenges to address regarding ESS, it’s a step in the right direction. Access to clean air and energy should not be a luxury—it’s a human right. If we can advocate for solutions to provide them in the best way possible, we must.