BOULDER, Colo. — In cities and regions where local utilities and governments allow building owners to monetize the value of peak load shifting, energy storage technologies are likely to spread rapidly, according to a new report from Pike Research, a part of Navigant’s Energy Practice. The firm predicts the total capacity of commercial building energy storage systems will grow from about 900 megawatt-hours (MWh) in 2013 to more than 5,000 MWh in 2022.

The market for energy storage in commercial buildings includes one mature segment — energy storage systems for uninterruptible power supply (UPS) systems — as well as two emerging segments: electrical energy storage (EES) systems and thermal energy storage (TES) systems.

“The future growth of TES and EES systems is primarily reliant on expectations of regulatory changes,” said senior research analyst Sam Jaffe. “If there is a sea-change in global electricity regulation that enables customers to realize the value of energy storage, then the market is likely to expand rapidly. We expect that some utility regions will alter regulations while others will not, leading to localized hotspots of growth surrounded by deserts of inaction.”

Another factor in the growth of commercial building energy storage will be reductions in the cost of these systems.

Publication date: 3/11/2013