Mobile Battery Energy Storage Systems for Tackling Grid Capacity Scarcity: A Cost Assessment and Market-Based Perspective

Limited grid capacity constrains the power available to end users. To provide additional power independently of these grid-related constraints, this paper studies the possibility to use mobile battery energy storage systems (MBESS) as an energy carrier. This concept relies on physical battery packs to deliver electricity from locations where it is abundant to locations where grid availability is insufficient. We first derive a model to determine the costs of (i) purchasing electricity to charge a battery pack with it, (ii) transporting it to a grid-constrained end-user, (iii) discharging it, and (iv) returning it back to its initial location. This full process is called the \textit{mobile battery round-trip} (MBRT). For a 3.21 MWh mobile battery, we find a cost per unit of energy delivered using MBRT of €99/MWh (resp. €114/MWh and €144/MWh) over a round-trip distance of 50 km (resp. 100 km and 200 km).
We then discuss four market structures that would enable energy exchange through mobile battery packs. Results suggest that as battery costs continue to decline, MBESS can become a viable grid-independent complement to existing infrastructure where grid reinforcement is slow or unavailable.