Upcoming Event: Energy Storage for the Grid: Watchful Waiting or the Perfect Storm?
I'll be moderating Energy Storage for the Grid: Watchful Waiting or the Perfect Storm? at the MIT Enterprise Forum Northwest's May 8, 2012 program at Seattle's Museum of History and Industry (MOHAI) , 2700 24th Ave East. The event, which includes a networking reception, will be held from 5:00 to 8:30 pm.
The evening's panelists will be:
- Terry Oliver, Chief Technology Innovations Officer, Bonneville Power
Administration - Alexander H. Slocum, Professor, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
- Chris Wheaton, Chief Operating & Financial Officer, EnerG2
- Nathan Adams, Manager of Development and Emerging Technologies, Puget Sound Energy
Among other topics, the panel will address:
- The most promising energy storage strategies
- How different storage methods could work together with the grid in the Northwest and nationally
- How entrepreneurs, the changing energy marketplace, grid operators, and utilities are responding to the call to build the foundation for a clean energy economy
For more information about this event, visit MITEF Northwest's web site.
I hope to see you there! In the meantime, for those who are following energy storage, I'm "tweeting" regularly on that topic as well as Department of Defense renewables procurement at @BillHolmesStoel (#energystorage).
California Public Utilities Commission Holds Prehearing Conference on Energy Storage Procurement Targets
As we’ve previously discussed, California’s AB 2514 requires the CPUC and municipal utilities in California to open proceedings by March 1, 2012 to determine appropriate targets, if any, for the procurement of viable and cost-effective energy storage systems by load-serving entities. Over a year before that deadline, the CPUC opened Rulemaking 10-12-007 in December of last year to both implement AB 2514 and “on [the CPUC’s] own motion to initiate policy for California utilities to consider the procurement of viable and cost effective storage systems.” In early March, the CPUC held an initial workshop on the scope of the rulemaking proceeding.
On April 21, the Commission held a prehearing conference to determine the scope and schedule for the proceeding. Stoel Rives partner Seth Hilton attended the conference. Among the issues discussed at the prehearing conference, led by Administrative Law Judge Yip-Kikugawa, was whether to conduct the proceeding in phases (e.g., first examining how storage might be applied, and then in a subsequent proceeding setting what the mandate will be for storage procurement), the issues to be covered in each phase , and whether evidentiary hearings would be necessary.
According to ALJ Yip-Kikugawa, a scoping memo should issue in the next two to three weeks. The scoping memo will set out the issues to be considered in the proceeding and a schedule for their resolution.
We'll be posting further information on Renewable + Law Blog when the scoping memo comes out, so stay tuned for further developments.
FERC Comments on Electric Storage Technologies Due August 9
Just a friendly reminder that the deadline to submit comments to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (“FERC”) on electric storage technologies is just around the corner. In its Request for Comments Regarding Rates, Accounting and Financial Reporting for New Electric Storage Technologies, FERC’s Office of Energy Policy and Innovation seeks comments on the following issues:
- The use of and rate treatment for storage facilities, including when it is appropriate to classify a storage facility as a transmission asset.
- The mechanisms by which a storage project that is used for multiple purposes may be compensated. Specifically, FERC seeks comment on whether a storage project may be compensated as transmission (e.g. for supporting unbundled transmission service by supplying reactive power) and also be compensated for providing ancillary services or for enhancing the value of merchant generation (e.g. by shifting output from an off-peak period to an on-peak period).
- The possibility of creating a stand-alone contract storage service and whether the storage provider would provide the service of electricity storage, enabling its customers to determine how to use their contracted share of the storage.
- Whether new accounting and reporting requirements should be created in order to facilitate cost of service or other rate policies for new storage technologies, such as chemical batteries and flywheels.
In addition to the issues outlined above and other specific questions posed by FERC in its Request for Comments, FERC invites comments on other related aspects of the storage issues not specifically addressed by FERC in the above-referenced document. Comments are due on Monday, August 9, 2010 and should reference Docket No. AD10-13-000.
Senators Propose Making Energy Storage Property Eligible for ITC & CREBs
Last week, Senators Jeff Bingaman (D-NM), Ron Wyden (D-OR), and Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH), introduced legislation that would add grid-connected energy storage property to the list of technologies eligible for the federal investment tax credit (the "ITC"). Under the Storage Technology for Renewable and Green Energy Act of 2010 (the "STORAGE 2010 Act"), eligible energy storage property would include hydroelectric pumped storage and compressed air energy storage, regenerative fuel cells, batteries, superconducting magnetic energy storage, flywheels, thermal energy storage systems and hydrogen storage. Systems that can sustain a power rating of at least one megawatt for a minimum of one hour would be eligible for a 20% tax credit under the ITC program. Should the bill become law, the tax credit would provide significant assistance to intermittent energy resource developers that are seeking new ways to shape and firm their projects' output.
The STORAGE 2010 Act would limit the available credits to $1.5 billion, and no single project may be allocated more than $30 million.
Importantly, the bill creates special extended deadlines for hydroelectric pumped storage facilities. Whereas the majority of energy storage property considered under the bill would be required to be placed in service within two years of the date the ITC was allocated, pumped storage facilities would have three years to secure required licenses and permits, five years to begin construction, and eight years to be placed in service.
Compressed air energy storage systems would enjoy similar extended deadlines- i.e., would be reqired to begin construction within three years and be placed in service within five years.
The bill would also allow grid-connected energy storage property to qualify for Clean Renewable Energy Bonds under section 54C of the Internal Revenue Code. The full text of the bill can be viewed here.
CPUC Staff Issues White Paper on Electric Energy Storage (EES)
Energy Electricty Storage (EES) is likely to become more and more important as intermittent solar and wind energy resources penetrate the grid. EES may be a very useful and perhaps essential way to manage the variability of intermittent renewable energy resources to allow developers to continue building wind and solar projects at an accelerating pace.
On July 9, 2010, the Policy and Planning Division of the California Public Utility Commission (CPUC) issued an interesting Staff White Paper entitled "Electric Energy Storage: An Assessment of Potential Barriers and Opportunities." The report is worth reading for those who are interested in the future of renewable energy and the roll that EES can play in enhancing the deployment of intermittent renewables.
The report describes "a promising new set of Electric Energy Storage ("EES") technologies [that] appear to provide an effective means for addressing the growing problems of reliance on an increasing percentage of intermittent renewable generation resources." The report observes that EES can provide several basice services, such as (1) supplying peak electricity demand by using electricity generated during periods of lower demand (e.g., storage of wind energy generated at night for use during daily peak periods), (2) balancing electricity supply and demand fluctuations over a period of minutes, and (3) deferring expansion of electric grid capacity (including generation, transmission and distribution).
Potential storage technologies include pumped hydro, compressed air energy storage ("CAES"), batteries, thermal storage (e.g., solar thermal plants), flywheels, unltracapacitors and superconducting magnetic storage--the report provides short but helpful description of each technology. Storage presents interesting legal and policy issues, because "[r]egulators are uncertain how EES technologies should fit into the electric system, in part because EES services provide multiple services such as generation, transmission and distribution." In addition, "regulators do not yet know how EES costs and benefits should be allocated among these three main elements of the electric system."
The report makes a number of recommendations, including that the CPUC should conduct a rulemaking to develop policies to remove barriers to the deployment of EES technology in California. The report also proposes that the CPUC consider placing EES within California's energy resources loading order, require utilities to incoporate EES into their integrated resource planning processes, encourage CAISO to change ancillary service market rules to allow EES systems to more easily bid into regulation markets, and integrate EES into utility transmission planning.
The report concludes that "the major barrier for deployment of new storage facilities is not necessarily the technology, but the absence of appropriate regulations and market mechanisms that properly recognize the value of the storage resource and financially comepnsate the owners/operators for the services and benefits they provide."
You can find the report here.
CPUC Staff Issues White Paper on Electric Energy Storage (EES)
Energy Electricty Storage (EES) is likely to become more and more important as intermittent solar and wind energy resources penetrate the grid. EES may be a very useful and perhaps essential way to manage the variability of intermittent renewable energy resources to allow developers to continue building wind and solar projects at an accelerating pace.
On July 9, 2010, the Policy and Planning Division of the California Public Utility Commission (CPUC) issued an interesting Staff White Paper entitled "Electric Energy Storage: An Assessment of Potential Barriers and Opportunities." The report is worth reading for those who are interested in the future of renewable energy and the roll that EES can play in enhancing the deployment of intermittent renewables.
The report describes "a promising new set of Electric Energy Storage ("EES") technologies [that] appear to provide an effective means for addressing the growing problems of reliance on an increasing percentage of intermittent renewable generation resources." The report observes that EES can provide several basice services, such as (1) supplying peak electricity demand by using electricity generated during periods of lower demand (e.g., storage of wind energy generated at night for use during daily peak periods), (2) balancing electricity supply and demand fluctuations over a period of minutes, and (3) deferring expansion of electric grid capacity (including generation, transmission and distribution).
Potential storage technologies include pumped hydro, compressed air energy storage ("CAES"), batteries, thermal storage (e.g., solar thermal plants), flywheels, unltracapacitors and superconducting magnetic storage--the report provides short but helpful description of each technology. Storage presents interesting legal and policy issues, because "[r]egulators are uncertain how EES technologies should fit into the electric system, in part because EES services provide multiple services such as generation, transmission and distribution." In addition, "regulators do not yet know how EES costs and benefits should be allocated among these three main elements of the electric system."
The report makes a number of recommendations, including that the CPUC should conduct a rulemaking to develop policies to remove barriers to the deployment of EES technology in California. The report also proposes that the CPUC consider placing EES within California's energy resources loading order, require utilities to incoporate EES into their integrated resource planning processes, encourage CAISO to change ancillary service market rules to allow EES systems to more easily bid into regulation markets, and integrate EES into utility transmission planning.
The report concludes that "the major barrier for deployment of new storage facilities is not necessarily the technology, but the absence of appropriate regulations and market mechanisms that properly recognize the value of the storage resource and financially comepnsate the owners/operators for the services and benefits they provide."
You can find the report here.
