battery aims to take stress off power grid during heat wave - battery energy storage system
Pushing temperatures to a 90-degree heat wave this week has caused millions of people to start air conditioning, putting pressure on utilities across the Northeast.
Several hours of power outages continued in some areas.
A company called Eos Energy Storage is working on new technologies that can provide solutions in the near future.
It has developed a battery system that can store a lot of energy, so it is available at peak demand when utilities need it most.
With Steve Hellman, president of heat bakes east Eos, telling CBS News that power companies are under a lot of pressure, it works by storing energy during periods of less demand, such as at night, then inject it into the system when it is actually needed.
Hellman said: "The weather is very hot during the day, everyone is turning on the air conditioner, the battery will discharge and provide extra energy.
"The Google cloud glitch went missing, and the Virginia Beach shooting protesters at Connecticut's mother interrupted Harris, saying it was much cheaper than building more power plants to provide additional energy capacity.
"This will save consumers 365 days a year," he said . " Not just during the heat wave.
The utility has used some large
Large scale batteries for energy storage, but so far the technology is too expensive to be used as widely as they would like.
Eos uses a relatively cheap elemental zinc in its battery and expects it to be able to provide energy at less than half the cost of other battery systems.
Now, the company is preparing to power the Eos Aurora grid --
Extend the battery system to the biggest test so far.
It recently announced that it will launch a pilot project in New York City in 2014 with Con Edison to use batteries to allocate stored energy.