FERC to explore role of energy storage in wholesale markets
By Peter Maloney |
Dive Brief:
- The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) has scheduled a technical conference on energy storage issues for Nov. 9.
- The Commission plans to explore under what circumstances it would be appropriate for energy storage resources to provide multiple services, and whether the wholesale market tariffs need to include provisions to accommodate them.
- FERC intends to look into storage used as a transmission asset, as a grid support tool and as a resource able to provide multiple services at once.
Dive Insight:
Over the past several years, FERC has been actively engaged in trying to integrate energy storage into the operation of wholesale power markets.
Starting in 2011 with Order 755, FERC made room for fast responding resources like batteries in wholesale markets, and followed in 2013 with Order 784, which directed wholesale market operators to find ways to compensate fast response resources.
FERC’s announcement of a technical conference to look into storage issues in regional wholesale markets follows its notice in April seeking inputs from grid operators on barriers that might exist in those markets for energy storage resources.
The technical conference will examine how well storage resources fit into existing categories and if changes need to be made to better accommodate storage, which can perform services that can variously appear as supply or demand, sometimes simultaneously.
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