Energy and Storage (Brazil)
Energy storage is emerging as a solution, especially to mitigate the risks of non-firm sources, such as solar and wind.
There are two main approaches: (1) requiring non-firm sources to incorporate energy storage and (2) enabling cost arbitrage between peak and off-peak hours.
The first is already a well-known solution, widely tested and approved, for example, in California (USA). The second is to provide a "tool" aimed at minimising peak demand.
In Brazil, we face a significant challenge that has been overlooked so far. The official peak hours is out of sync with the actual peak hours. Consequently, storage solutions are not yet viable!
It is high time for this issue to be identified and resolved. Otherwise, as always, systemic errors associated costs will be passed on to all consumers. As a result, we will remain at the bottom of the BRICS countries in terms of costs in US dollars/kWh.