Spatiotemporal Arbitrage of Large-Scale Portable Energy Storage for Grid Congestion Relief
For grid operators and energy storage investors, this work demonstrates a viable business model for using portable storage to alleviate transmission congestion, though it is an incremental application of existing technology.
This paper proposes a business model for large-scale portable energy storage that uses trucking to move storage between congested grid nodes for spatiotemporal arbitrage. Simulations show portable storage provides greater congestion relief and net profit compared to stationary storage.
Energy storage has great potential in grid congestion relief. By making large-scale energy storage portable through trucking, its capability to address grid congestion can be greatly enhanced. This paper explores a business model of large-scale portable energy storage for spatiotemporal arbitrage over nodes with congestion. We propose a spatiotemporal arbitrage model to determine the optimal operation and transportation schedules of portable storage. To validate the business model, we simulate the schedules of a Tesla Semi full of Tesla Powerpack doing arbitrage over two nodes in California with local transmission congestion. The results indicate that the contributions of portable storage to congestion relief are much greater than that of stationary storage, and that trucking storage can bring net profit in energy arbitrage applications.