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.
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.
