The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) has announced plans to convene a technical conference on November 9, 2016 regarding utilization of electric storage resources in the wholesale electric markets.
The Notice of Technical Conference describes electric storage resources as facilities that can receive electric energy from the grid and store it for later injection of electricity back to the grid, regardless of size, storage medium, or interconnection point. Through the conference, FERC seeks to explore the circumstances under which electric storage resources can be utilized as transmission assets, to provide grid support services, or to provide multiple services.
Although FERC plans to issue a more detailed description of the technical conference agenda in a supplemental notice closer to the conference date, FERC has identified the following specific topics for the conference:
- Potential cost recovery for electric storage resources utilized as both transmission assets and providers of energy, capacity, or ancillary service;
- Potential models to enable an electric storage resource to provide a compensated grid support service (e.g., a generator providing ancillary services under a reliability must-run contract) rather than being compensated for providing transmission service; and
- Practical considerations for electric storage resources providing multiple services at once (i.e., providing both wholesale service(s) and retail and/or end-use service(s)).
Parties wishing to speak at the conference should complete FERC’s nomination form by October 14, 2016.
