Improving electrical energy storage

Audun Botterud

Botterud’s research focuses on the integration of renewable energy and energy storage into a smarter electric grid. More broadly, his research aims to improve the understanding of the complex interactions between engineering, economics, and policy in electricity markets—ultimately enabling a transition towards more cost-efficient and reliable low-carbon energy systems.

Botterud and some researchers at MIT Energy Initiative are currently working to better model economic performance of energy storage systems—particularly involving lithium-ion batteries. Their findings could be used to more effectively determine the value of battery technologies for power grid applications. Read more here.

Additional research looks at other ways in which electrical energy storage could play a key role in sustainability, while also considering the uncertainty of costs of energy technology costs. Botterud and collaborators explored the potential value of energy storage towards decarbonization of the electricity sector—developing a model to assess the impact of increasing levels of energy storage capacity on both power system operations and investments in generation capacity. (“The value of energy storage in decarbonizing the electricity sector”Applied Energy, Volume 175, 1 August 2016, Pages 368-379.)

Additional references and resources:

“The value of energy storage in decarbonizing the electricity sector” – Fernando J. de Sisternes, Jesse D. Jenkins, Audun Botterud
- Applied Energy, Volume 175, 1 August 2016, Pages 368–379.

“Enhanced representations of lithium-ion batteries in power systems models and their effect on the valuation of energy arbitrage applications” – Apurba Sakti, Kevin G. Gallagher, Nestor Sepulveda, Canan Uckun, Claudio Vergara, Fernando J. de Sisternes, Dennis W. Dees – Journal of Power Sources – Volume 342, 28 February 2017, Pages 279–291.

“Electricity market design for generator revenue sufficiency with increased variable generation” – Todd Levin, Audun Botterud – Energy Policy, Volume 87, December 2015, Pages 392–406.

“An Improved Stochastic Unit Commitment Formulation to Accommodate Wind Uncertainty” – Canan Uçkun, Audun Botterud, John R. Birge – IEEE Transactions on Power Systems, Vol. 31, No. 4, July 2016


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Massachusetts Institute of Technology
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