Techno-economic comparison of diabatic CAES with artificial air reservoir and battery energy storage systems

In the present paper, D-CAES storage systems are compared with Sodium–Sulfur (Na–S) and Lithium-ion (Li-ion) based ones on the basis of the Levelized Cost of Storage (LCOS). Utility-scale systems characterized by a rated power in the range of 5–20 MW and storage capacity of tens/hundreds megawatt-hours have been addressed. Analyses have been carried out by varying key parameters such as the installed power, the charge/discharge time periods, the price of electricity and the fuel cost. Results show that the adoption of D-CAES systems can lead to a better economic performance in respect to BES technologies. Na–S battery based systems show a better economic performance in comparison with Li-ion based ones. It has been noticed how D-CAES economic performance improves by increasing the size of the system both in terms of installed power and storage capacity. D-CAES solutions can achieve a LCOS lower than that shown by Na–S​ batteries, provided that the size of the system and the price of electricity are large enough.