Optimal deployment of thermal energy storage under diverse economic and climate conditions

Results indicate that TES systems of all sizes can be effective in reducing annual electricity costs (5-15%) and peak electricity consumption (13-33%). The investigation also identifies a number of criteria which drive TES investment, including low capital costs, electricity tariffs with high power demand charges and prolonged cooling seasons. In locations where these drivers clearly exist, the heuristically sized systems capture much of the value of optimally sized systems; between 60% and 100% in terms of net present value. However, in instances where these drivers are less pronounced, the heuristic tends to oversize systems, and optimization becomes crucial to ensure economically beneficial deployment of TES, increasing the net present value of heuristically sized systems by as much as 10 times in some instances.