CAMBRIDGE, Mass.--Utility company American Electric Power (AEP) plans this year to place equipment in residential areas capable of storing a few hours of electricity, one of the first tests of distributed storage on the power grid.
The storage units would be the size of a relatively small "backyard transformer," each wired to provide enough electricity for four to six houses. Together, those storage units could provide back-up power to neighborhoods during outages and potentially for other applications.
Because of the high cost, energy storage devices need to be used for a number of applications to generate sufficient revenue, the speakers said. For example, a large battery could provide back-up power, do peak shaving, and be used to stabilize dips in grid signal frequency.
![[Valid Atom 1.0]](valid-atom.png "Validate my Atom 1.0 feed")
