Battery systems on the U.S. power grid are increasingly used to respond to price

According to the early release of our Annual Electric Generator Report, the capacity of utility-scale battery storage more than tripled in the United States during 2021, from 1.4 gigawatts (GW) at the end of 2020 to 4.6 GW. The survey asked respondents how they use batteries, and respondents could cite more than one application for a system. Although battery systems have several common applications, more systems are increasingly used to store electricity when prices are low and discharge electricity when prices are high, a strategy known as price arbitrage.