FERC Allows Energy Storage to Play in Nationwide Wholesale Markets

according to The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission has passed a rule that will open U.S. wholesale energy markets to energy storage on an equal footing with generators and other grid resources. That's a much broader set of opportunities than those currently available to large-scale batteries, pumped hydro systems, thermal energy storage and other types of energy storage now participating in ISO and RTO markets. ISOs and RTOs still have a year to implement these future energy storage market participation rules. But rules for actually aggregating energy storage, or any other kind of distributed energy resource, on a home-by-home basis, are still being worked out. The original proposed rule on energy storage included a section on how to address aggregated distributed energy resources (DERs).

FERC Opens US Wholesale Energy Markets To Battery and Electric Storage Systems

FERC's vote to open US wholesale energy markets to batteries and other electric storage systems is intended to "enhance competition and promote greater efficiency in the nation's electric wholesale markets, and will help support the resilience of the bulk power system," the federal agency announced on February 15. The rules must account for the physical and operational characteristics of electric storage resources through bidding parameters or other means. The sale of electric energy from the wholesale electricity market to an electric storage resource that the resource then resells back to those markets must be at the wholesale locational marginal price. Energy storage groups, clean energy advocates, and environmentalists lauded FERC's decision. "The original proposed rule on energy storage included a section on how to address aggregated distributed energy resources," he wrote.

Energy Storage Is Coming, But Big Price Declines Still Needed

as declared in In the U.S., most energy storage comes from pumped hydro facilities, but these systems require large amounts of co-located land, elevation and water. Some areas of the country utilize diesel engines as peakers and lately natural gas internal combustion engines (diesel engines reconfigured to run on natural gas) are frequently deployed. And, because energy storage is not 100% efficient, you don't get as much energy out as you put in, this means that energy storage systems are a net energy sink. In 2016, energy storage in the U.S. (mainly pumped hydro) on net (output - input) consumed 6.7 TWh of energy. The more energy storage we deploy, the more energy we are likely to consume, ceteris paribus.

collected by :Victor Alphen