Energy Storage as an Equity Asset

PURPOSE OF REVIEW: This review offers a discussion on how energy storage deployment advances equitable outcomes for the power system. It catalogues the four tenets of the energy justice concept—distributive, recognition, procedural, and restorative—and shows how they relate to inequities in energy affordability, availability, due process, sustainability, and responsibility. RECENT FINDINGS: Energy storage systems have been deployed to support grid reliability and renewable resource integration, but there is additional emerging value in considering the connections between energy storage applications and equity challenges in the power system. Through a thorough review of the energy justice and energy transitions literature, this paper offers the equity dimensions of storage project design and implementations. SUMMARY: Emerging energy programs and projects are utilizing energy storage in pursuit of improved equity outcomes. Future research and policy design should integrate energy justice principles to align storage penetration with desired equity outcomes.