About MDES 2024 – Medium Duration Energy Storage 2024

MDES 2024 was held from 09:00 – 17:00 UTC on January 12, 2024 and addressed recent advances in thinking around the technologies, the policies and the commercial realities of Medium Duration Energy Storage (MDES).

It covered the following issues:

  • Specific technology and project updates within compressed air energy storage
  • Specific technology and project updates within pumped hydro energy storage
  • Short updates from MDES developments in early commercialisation stages
  • Modelling that elucidates the added value of different storage technologies
  • A panel discussion on latest thinking about what policy and market mechanisms are needed to elicit investment in MDES

The event was free to attend – either physically (at IMechE in London) or virtually.

This event was brought-about through funding from Research England under its “Policy Support Fund” scheme. It drew upon support from Energy Research Accelerator (where presentations and recordings will be archived), Supergen Energy Storage Network Plus, the IEA Technology Collaboration Programme on Energy Storage and EERA (European Energy Research Alliance) SP4.

Download the event report here

Institution of Mechanical Engineers (IMechE)
Institution of Mechanical Engineers, London

Programme videos & presentations

09:15 – 10:45: ADVANCES IN COMPRESSED AIR ENERGY STORAGE

Isothermal Compressed Air Energy Storage for Decentralised Energy Grid
Dr. Yasser Mahmoudi (Manchester Univ)
Sustainable & Affordable CAES
Dr. Edward Barbour (Loughborough Univ)
High Performance CAES through elevated temperature thermal storage
Dr. Wei He
Offshore CAES
FLASC, Dr. Daniel Buhagiar
CAES with Heat
Cheesecake Energy Ltd, Dr. Mike Simpson
Question session
Video of question session for Compressed Air Energy Storage

11:15 – 12:30: ADVANCES IN MEDIUM DURATION ENERGY STORAGE SOLUTIONS

Iron Air: Enabling Ultra-Low Cost Multi-Day Storage
Cillian Totterdell (FORM Energy)
RheEnergise
Lizzi Gold
Small-scale Pumped Hydro projects
Mr. Jonathan Cox (AECOM)
Question session
Medium Duration Energy Storage

13:30 – 14:30: THERMAL ENERGY STORAGE

Topologically Engineered Thermal Energy Storage for Carnot Batteries
Dr Adriano Sciacovelli (Birmingham)
RISMA: Compressor Integrated Energy Storage
Dr. Adrian Alford (Innovatium)
SynchroStor – a Pumped Thermal E.S. system
Prof. Win Rampen (Edinburgh)

14:50 – 15:35: MODELLING AND MEDIUM DURATION ENERGY STORAGE

Modelling Energy Systems Including Multiple Stores
Professor Seamus Garvey, (University of Nottingham)
The benefits of blending storage types
Dr. Tony Roulstone (Cambridge)
Whole-system value of MDES & LDES solutions in Net Zero Futures
Prof. Goran Strbac (Imperial College)
Monetising Medium Duration Storage
Dr. Iain Staffell (Imperial College)

15:40 – 16:40: PANEL SESSION: POLICY AND MARKET ISSUES AFFECTING MDES

Policy and Market Issues Affecting MDES
Panel Session chaired by Tom Bent
  • Nina Skorupska, CEO of the REA (Association of Renewable Energy and Clean Technologies)
  • Prof. Ian Arbon (Independent Consultant, EngineeredSolutions)
  • Sarah Keay-Bright from National Grid ESO (TBC)
  • Dr. Iain Staffell (Imperial College)