Real-Time Optimal Dispatch and Economic Viability of Cryogenic Energy Storage Exploiting Arbitrage Opportunities in an Electricity Market

In this paper, the economic viability and profitability of a newly emerging storage technology, i.e., cryogenic energy storage (CES), is investigated. A real-time optimal dispatching algorithm is proposed and developed to optimally dispatch a privately owned CES unit to generate revenue by exploiting arbitrage opportunities in the day-ahead/week-ahead electricity market. Due to its special characteristics, CES can provide significantly more financial and technical benefits in a weekly scheduling compared with common daily scheduling. The electricity price modulation is proposed as a new approach to competitively offer subsidy by the utility regulator to CES owners to fill the gap between current and a stable expected rate of return. Using real-world price data from the Ontario wholesale electricity market, the method is validated. The results reveal significant benefits of weekly usage as compared to daily usage of CES. The efficacy and feasibility of the proposed approach to subsidize CES owners are validated through simulation studies.