Coupled power plant and geostorage simulations of porous media compressed air energy storage (PM-CAES)

Porous media compressed air energy storage (PM-CAES) systems that use porous geological formations such as sandstone may provide large storage capacities in future energy systems based primarily on fluctuating renewable energy sources. In CAES systems, the instantaneous power and stored energy are closely linked to the storage pressure and the mass flow rate achievable in the geological reservoir. Therefore, a coupled simulator that accurately represents the power plant, the geostorage site, and their interactions during all potential PM-CAES system operation modes is presented in this paper. Using adiabatic and diabatic power plant topology test designs, strong feedback between the achievable storage rates and capacities of the chosen power plant design and geostorage site are found, thus confirming the benefit of this integrated modelling approach. Using a generic, highly cyclic load profile for daily peak shaving with charging and discharging rates of 100 MW and an adiabatic power plant topology, it is found that all discharging targets can be met but the achievable charging rates decrease to approximately 95 MW due to increased pressure in the geostorage after approximately 10 cycles. When a diabatic power plant design is considered, a long-term decrease in the geostorage pressure is found. Correspondingly, the charging power always meets the specifications, while the discharging power decreases slowly from the 20th storage cycle onwards to 79 MW in the 31st cycle. The newly developed simulation tool thus allows one to predict achievable power rates and geostorage pressures for PM-CAES systems, enabling the identification of efficient PM-CAES designs.