Liquid air energy storage: price arbitrage operations and sizing optimization in the GB real-time electricity market

Liquid air energy storage is a novel proven technology that has the potential to increase the penetration of renewable on the power network and in the meanwhile to obtain revenues through energy price arbitrage. This paper proposes a methodology to evaluate the economic viability of liquid air energy storage based on price arbitrage operations in the GB real-time electricity market. The arbitrage algorithm designed in this article determines price thresholds every half hour under different operation strategies and according to which, decisions are made for the system to charge, discharge or stand by, and the optimal design of the size of different components for the system are also evaluated. Results suggest that the 12 prognostic is the best operating strategy, and under which a 200 MW LAES system is able to achieve a positive net present value of £43.8 M. Without using waste heat, the payback period for a 200 MW system can be as long as 36.9 to 39.4 years, depending on which arbitrage strategy is applied. However, with waste heat of 150 °C adopted, the payback period can be shortened to 8.7–9.8 years.