Sandia Labs and Singapore team up to develop energy storage

Sandia National Laboratories and Singapore’s Energy Market Authority (EMA) have signed a Cooperative Research and Development Agreement (CRADA) to develop energy storage technology.

Energy storage captures energy produced at one time for later use. Energy storage systems allow for fluctuating levels of demand, an aspect that is becoming increasingly important to the electricity power grid.

Last year Sandia organized a workshop in Singapore on the latest developments in storage technologies. That event paved the way for the CRADA under which Sandia will help set up Singapore’s first grid storage test-bed.

“Sandia will collaboratively develop an energy storage test-bed to better understand the feasibility of deploying energy storage systems [ESS] in Singapore,” said Dan Borneo, Sandia team lead on the project.

The four-year agreement was backed by the Department of Energy’s Office of Electricity’s Stationary Energy Storage Program. Sandia will work with Singapore EMA to establish and evaluate up to three ESS test-beds at existing electrical substations with various energy-storage technologies. That technology includes lithium-ion, flywheels and flow batteries.  

Sandia will evaluate different grid applications, such as frequency/voltage support and renewable integration, while also helping EMA develop guidelines and standards for fire safety and grid integration.

Sandia, which has researched the safety and performance of energy storage systems for more than two decades, will also offer guidance on regulatory and policy frameworks that EMA will need in order to introduce energy storage into Singapore’s electricity market.