Hartford Business Journal

16 Hartford Business Journal • May 1, 2017 www.HartfordBusiness.com Storage is seen as a key component in transitioning to a grid that relies much more heavily on carbon-free wind and solar power — "intermittent" sources that produce elec- tricity only when the wind blows or the sun shines. Being able to store that energy out- put in batteries for later use during calm and cloudy days could revolutionize the grid. The problem is, despite technological advancements, large-scale storage efforts remain too expensive for most states and utili- ties, said Mike Perry, an electrochemical sys- tems engineer at UTRC, whose team is work- ing with Harvard University, the University of South Carolina and others to try to bring down the cost of grid-scale storage by experimenting with new battery chemistries and components. "Renewables have really raised the bar and storage is kind of the missing link for what we do when the sun doesn't shine," Perry said. "So you've got to have storage." UTRC bets on flow battery Some utilities, particularly in California, are already using batteries. But installed capacity remains small across the country. To fuel a surge in renewable power, bat- teries need to be able to store and discharge energy for longer durations, which is where UTRC's battery comes in. UTRC's technology isn't the typical lead- acid or lithium-ion batteries you'd find in vari- ous consumer gadgets. It's a tractor-trailer- sized "flow battery," which uses two large tanks of liquid solution containing dissolved metals to store electrical energy that can later be sent to the grid. Perry's team has already had success in reducing the cost of its flow battery, which it licensed to Massachusetts-based Vionx Energy several years ago. Vionx, which has raised near- ly $90 million from investors, has installed a flow battery at a military base and is working to fur- ther develop and commercialize the technology in partnership with a number of big companies, including Siemens, 3M and United Technolo- gies, which is providing ongoing R&D support through UTRC. Flow batteries are competing with lithi- um-ion batteries, which are more common today in utility-scale storage. Lithium technology has seen steep price decreases akin to those experienced by solar panels in recent years, said Richard Fiora- vanti, a longtime energy storage expert and principal of Exponent Inc. in Washington, D.C. "We're seeing this very aggressive, steep cost decline on the lithium side, and that's a chal- lenge to these [flow battery] manufacturers," said Fioravanti, who several decades ago worked for UTC Aerospace predecessor Hamilton Standard. But the race toward a potentially lucrative utility market is still on. Various companies are betting on flow batteries in the hopes they can drive down costs and improve performance, ultimately overtaking lithium's early lead in the grid-scale market. "They're all going after this long duration market, but who's going to get there first is a question," Fioravanti said. "Who's to say what a company like UTRC can do?" With its latest round of federal money, from the U.S. Department of Energy, UTRC will test out different and potentially cheaper membranes — an expensive part of the bat- tery that separates the liquid solution in the large tanks. They will also experiment with the make- up of the solution itself. To date, UTRC has used an element called vanadium in the mix- ture, but Perry said the team will explore using iron, which is a cheaper element, as well as man-made molecules that are organ- ic-metal hybrids. Signs of change Though still too expensive for most states to bother with, grid-scale storage has started to catch on in certain areas. The biggest example is California, which in 2013 ordered its utilities to install 1.3 giga- watts of storage capacity by 2020. Closer to home, Massachusetts announced early this year that it would set its own storage targets by July. Connecticut has dabbled a bit. Several bids into a recent clean-energy procure- ment included storage proposals, but none were selected. In addition, a 2015 state law required utilities Eversource and Avangrid to propose storage- demonstration projects. But utility regulators earlier this year deemed the proposals too expensive. Both utilities are re-evaluating their proposals. "We strongly believe there is a place for this technology and earlier this year filed with Mas- sachusetts regulators a proposed $100 million energy-storage program there," Eversource spokesman Mitch Gross said. "Energy storage will be another tool we can use to reduce the length of any outages. It will help provide our customers with a stronger, more reliable elec- tricity delivery system. While there is currently limited use of these energy-storage systems nationally, we are seeing projections showing more of them coming online across the coun- try in the next three to five years." Neither Eversource nor Avangrid has any battery storage installed in Connecticut. Absent a state mandate, that may remain the case for some time, unless battery prices fall far enough, said Fioravanti. After all, it's not like the grid is in shambles, Fioravanti said. "It's not in their charter to test new technolo- gies for the heck of it," he said. Grid operator ISO-New England is prepar- ing for the potential advent of storage. New England's grid had 16 megawatts of battery storage capacity as of late last year, and ISO-NE reported in January that an additional 77 mega- watts of battery capacity are in the development pipeline. Battery operators were also recently granted permission to sell power into ISO-NE's wholesale energy markets. "Storage technology is developing rapidly and is expected to have increased levels of participation in the markets in coming years as costs associated with storage continue to decline and levels of intermittent renew- able resources in the markets continue to increase," ISO-NE said. However, ISO-NE and others have also noted that significant transmission upgrades will be needed to grow wind power. RPS goals a challenge Connecticut has been gradually ramp- ing up the amount of clean power its utilities must buy each year. But despite various state incentives, solar and wind represented just 3 percent of New England's power mix in 2016. Meanwhile, natu- ral gas plants produced nearly half and nuclear plants — a carbon-free source — generated 31 percent. There are different categories of what the state considers to be "renewable," but the clean- est category — which includes true renewables like solar and wind as well as emissions-emit- ting technologies like fuel cells and landfill gas — is scheduled to reach 20 percent in 2020. Lawmakers are currently weighing a bill that would double that requirement by 2040. If that happens, at some point during the transition, there could be infrastructure problems, Fioravanti said. The electric grid has been able to absorb the modest levels of renewable generation so far, but a significant ramp-up will lead to peri- ods where output from intermittent renew- ables doesn't match up with demand. "As you get to higher and higher penetra- tions [of renewables], these swings can become greater and create larger problems," Fioravanti said. "Consensus is that this point is hit around 20 to 30 percent penetration levels. If a state has a mandate to hit 20, 30, 50 percent renewables, obviously they're going to need storage." n from page 1 UTRC aims for more affordable battery An example of flow battery technology being developed at the United Technologies Research Center in East Hartford. H B J P H O T O | M A T T P I L O N Female doctors earn a lot less than male doctors By Kathryn Vasel CNNMoney I t's no secret that doctors take home some pretty hefty pay- checks. But male physicians are getting paid a lot more than their female colleagues. Among all physicians, females earn an average of 74 cents for every dollar a man makes, according to a new report from Doximity, a social network for healthcare professionals. That translates to female physicians earning roughly $91,000 less a year than their male counterparts. Among all full-time workers in the U.S., women earned an average of around 82 cents for every dollar men made in 2016, according to the Labor Department. Physicians in Bridgeport earn some of the highest average pay in the U.S., but female doctors there earn 29 percent less than their male colleagues. That's among the highest gender pay gaps in major metro areas, and only slightly larger than the 22 percent and 25 percent gaps for female doctors in Hartford and New Haven, respectively, according to the study. The average annual salary for all physicians, specialists and primary care doctors combined in Bridgeport was $353,925, second highest among large metro areas. The average salary for primary care physicians in Bridgeport was $279,138. New Haven ranked ninth-lowest for primary care physician pay, $232,260. Hartford fared better at $244,418. For all physi- cians combined, Hartford's average pay was $324,790; New Haven's was $301,475. Even when broken down by medical specialty, there is no area where women earn as much as men. The biggest pay gaps exist in vascular surgery, occupa- tional medicine and pediatric endocrinology. The wage gap can put women at a disadvantage in their long-term earnings potential and when it comes to paying off the massive loans that tend to accompany medical school. "Medicine is going through a generational shift," said Joel Davis, vice president of strategic analytics at Doximity. "They are entering a world that has been historically dominated by men." n HBJ staff writer John Stearns contributed to this story. G R A P H I C | C N N M O N E Y

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