ULTRACAPACITORS FOR GRID SCALE ANCILLARY SERVICES - AES 2013 Rev3

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ULTRACAPACITORS FOR GRID SCALE ANCILLARY SERVICES
Shaw Lynds, Senior Systems Engineer
Advanced Energy Solutions Conference
November 2013

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About Maxwell
Maxwell was founded in 1965
 430 Employees
 Revenue ~ $159 M (`12)
 Listed on Nasdaq – Symbol: MXWL
 Significant Ultracapacitor revenue
growth over last 5 years !
1992 Maxwell starts development of Ultracapacitors
1995 Maxwell introduces first large Ultracapacitors
2002 Fusion of Maxwell and Montena
2004 Maxwell produces own, proprietary Electrode
2007 Production start in China
2008 Opening of Automotive Office in Munich, Germany
2008 One Millionth Large UCAP cell (December 8)
2009 SOP First Automotive program
2010 Launch of ESM Module
2011 2nd Million Large UCAP cell produced (January 28)
2012 Further capacity expansions (1M cells/quarter)
Advanced Energy Solutions
Conference - November 2013

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What is an Ultracapacitor?
Ultracapacitors, Electric Double Layer
Capacitors, Supercapacitors are all
synonyms
 Operating principle
• An electronic charge accumulator
having extreme capacitor plate
specific area and atomic scale
charge separation distance.
• No chemical reactions during
charge/discharge
 Performance
• Less then 1 sec time constant
• 100k to >1M cycle life
• Up to 15 year DC life
Separator
Electrode
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Fundamental Materials
The basic material to make
Ultracapacitors is carbon
from coconuts!
Grind
Activation
Maxwell Electrode
Coating
Rolling
Kneading
Pasting
Charred Carbon Activated Carbon
Dry and
chip shells
Maxwell
Ultracapacitors
Insert
Impregnate
Seal

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Applications Advanced Energy Solutions Conference
November 2013
Pitch Control Systems
 5+ years in operation
 17,500+ turbines in the field
Hybrid Buses
 15,000+ buses in the field
Board Net Stabilization
 750,000+ cars in the field
Grid Stabilization
 <1 year in operation
 3 MW rated power

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Ultracapacitors for Grid Stabilization
What is Grid Stabilization?
• When a large enough load is turned
on and off on the grid, it can cause
voltage and frequency disturbances
in the local area around it
• These disturbances are caused by
the delay between when the load is
switched on or off and how long it
takes for the local generators to
respond to the new demand level
• These local disturbances can be
reduced by adding energy storage to
fulfill local demand fluctuations until
generators have time to respond.
Large viable loads cause local
Adding energy storage can
eliminate these local disturbances

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Yangshan Deep-Water Port Case Study
Crane operation causes constant
voltage fluctuations on the local grid
The port is at the end of the worlds
longest bridge, making larger
transmission lines expensive
Why Shanghai's new port is using
Ultracapacitors for voltage stabilization
• When operating at capacity, Yangshan Deep-
Water Port’s 23 quay cranes have enough
power draw to cause significant voltage
fluctuations on the local grid for 10-15 seconds
at a time
• Because the port is located at the end of a 20
mile bridge, increasing the transmission line
capacity was determined to be too costly
• An energy storage system was needed to
smooth out the short voltage fluctuations
caused by crane operation, without requiring a
larger transmission line
• Ultracapacitors were selected for their high
cycle, and design life

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Yangshan Deep-Water Port Case Study
Yangshan Deep-Water Port Solution
• A total of 126 of Maxwell's 125V modules
were chosen for energy storage
• 3 MW rated power
• 17.2 kWh stored energy
• 20 seconds of reserve power
A total of 6,048
Maxwell 3000F cells10kV distribution
system
Provides voltage
stabilization for the port
Six 500kW arrays

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The Need for Grid Stabilization at Home
Renewable energy such as solar is highly variable and can cause
local disturbances
• Similar to port cranes, voltage and frequency disturbances are caused
when the solar power plant output changes faster than grid generation
can respond
• In areas of high solar penetration, these disturbances can lower the
power quality to the point where local consumers are adversely effected
Large viable loads cause local
Large viable sources like solar can
cause local disturbances as well

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The Need for Grid Stabilization at Home
SunPower’s 250 MW California
Valley Solar Ranch installation
CAISO:Renewable power on
Sunday, August 18, 2013
A CAISO record of 1.8 GW of solar
power generation set in May
California has a renewable
power source goal of 33%
by 2020
At present, the need for grid
stabilization is small but growing fast
• Solar represent less then 5% of California's
power at any point in time and is expected to
double by 2020
• As solar reaches higher levels of penetration
on the grid it could outpace generation’s ability
to respond to its output variability

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How the Grid Responds to Variability
How loads are balanced on the grid
Source: Eyer, Jim, and Garth Corey. Energy Storage for the
Electricity Grid. Sandia National Laboratories, Feb 2010.
Southern Califorina Edison’s power quality chart
Source: Power Quality Handbook. Southern California Edison
Power Quality Department, 2013.
Normal load variability is balanced by responsive generation
(regulation) to maintain power quality
• To sell regulation power on the ancillary services market, a plant must be able to
respond to constant power adjustment requests and ramp it a new output level
within five minutes.
• Currently California ISO purchases between 350 and 600 MW of regulation on the
ancillary services market, or about 1-1.5% of peak generation each day to
maintain power quality standards

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Why Renewables Require More Ancillary Services Advanced Energy Solutions
Source: Short-Term Variability of Solar Power
by Andrew Mills of Lawrence Berkeley National
Laboratory, Oct 2010
Solar power is a high variability source!
• Light cloud cover can cause large swings in
output power in much less then in five minutes
• Output swings of 40% in under a minute are
not uncommon
• Much like with the port cranes, large changes
in solar power output can cause local area
disturbances
Source: Lenox, Carl. Variability In A Large-Scale PV
Installation. SunPower, October 2009.

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A Simple Grid Model Advanced Energy Solutions
Grid power with 50% solar penetration and
power plant with a 5 min ramp rate
The effects of increased solar
power on the grid can be seen
with a simplified grid model
• Model consists of a single power
plant with a 5 min ramp rate and
dedicated entirely to regulation,
a constant power load and solar
plant of varying power output
• The power regulates its output to
try and maintain load balance
within power quality bounds
• If the power quality bounds are
violated, the load trips off for five
seconds and then resets
• This simple model shows that
the grid will become unstable at
solar penetration levels above
20%
In the model, the grid becomes unstable at
solar penetration levels above 20%

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A Simple Grid with Energy Storage Advanced Energy Solutions
Grid power quality with 50% solar
penetration and 30 sec of energy storage
Energy storage allows greater
solar penetration while
maintaining power quality
• The addition of energy storage
allows solar fluctuations to be
smoothed, and allows the power
plant time to respond to the
increased demand
• The model shows that as little as
20 seconds of reserve capacity
allows solar penetration to
double to 40% without load
shedding trips
• Increasing levels of energy
storage produce diminishing
benefit, with 30 seconds of
backup required at 50% solar
penetration.
Load shedding trips as a function of
solar penetration and energy storage

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Characteristics of Energy Storage for Solar Advanced Energy Solutions
Characteristics of energy storage required to stabilize solar output
for 5 min ramp rate grid regulation
• For solar penetration levels of less then 50%, only 10-30 seconds of energy
storage would be needed to ensure local power quality
• Based on modeling, the 30 second reserve capacity would cycle the
equivalent of 8.6 complete cycles on an average summer day
• Based on the energy storage medium to match the 20 year life of the solar
array, it would require a cycle life of 60k cycles or greater
One month
One day
One hour
One hour
Input form
solar array
Net output smoothed
to 5 min ramp rate

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Characteristics of Energy Storage for Solar Advanced Energy Solutions
Selected energy storage technologies
typical cycle life
Selected energy storage technologies
specific energy vs. back up time
The reserve time and cycle needs of stabilizing solar power for grid
regulation fits well with ultracapacitor power characteristics
• Ultracapacitors provide a 2-3X smaller solution than batteries for 20
seconds of reserve capacity
• Ultracapacitor cycle life enables system design life in the same range as
the PV array with out over sizing the system

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Ultracapacitor Grid Demonstrations
Based on the premise that
ultracapacitors stabilize solar
power on the grid, Maxwell is
demonstrating the technology
at two sites in a California
Energy Commission Funded
Project:
• The Phase I system will have a
30kW rating and be installed at
UCSD in 2014 to demonstrate
stabilization of a 28kW CPV
system
• The Phase II system will have a
250kW rating and be installed at a
larger CPV array in the desert in
2015
The conceptual 28kW cabinet design and
demonstration site location at UCSD
The conceptual 250kW design to be
demonstrated in 2015

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Summary Advanced Energy Solutions
Ultracapacitors show promise for providing grid scale
ancillary services such as stabilization of solar power to
a allow greater penetration of renewables
• Ultracapacitors have already proven to effectively stabilize
local grids with highly variable loads
• Stabilizing solar power output for grid regulation appears to
have similar power characteristics
• For such high power, low reserve time applications,
ultracapacitors have the potential of providing a solution
that is 2-3X smaller then comparable battery solutions
• Ultracapacitors are one of the few storage technologies
capable to matching the design life of a solar array
• Maxwell is excited about the application of ultracapacitors
for grid scale solar power stabilization, and is currently
preparing demonstration sites to show the viability of the
concept

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