The Midcontinent Independent System Operator (MISO), a Regional Transmission Organization (RTO), has proposed to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) tariff provisions that would treat electric storage facilities as transmission-only facilities if they provide the preferred solution to a transmission issue in MISO’s regional planning process. This is the first such proposal by a wholesale electric market operator. Up to now, storage facility requests to qualify as transmission facilities have been few and case-specific. Treatment as a transmission resource provides additional deployment opportunities for storage resources and allows them cost recovery through cost-based transmission rates instead of relying on energy market revenues. Standardized tariff-based terms and conditions for qualifying as a transmission resource should provide an easier path to such treatment.
Continue Reading Proposal to Treat Electric Storage as Transmission Now Before FERC
Electric Storage
Environmental and Safety Requirements Affecting the Marketing of Electronic Devices and their Components in the European Union and European Economic Area
Electronic devices and their components marketed in the European Union and European Economic Area are subject to a morass of environmental and product safety requirements that is only likely to increase with the EU’s implementation of its Circular Economy Strategy in the near future. The requirements apply to all types of equipment, from sophisticated information technology equipment, to military equipment, aircraft components, electronic medical devices, household electronics, consumer devices, and industrial tools.
Continue Reading Environmental and Safety Requirements Affecting the Marketing of Electronic Devices and their Components in the European Union and European Economic Area
FERC Gets Comments on Electric Storage Proposal
By Inside Energy on
Posted in Batteries & Battery Recycling, Electricity Grid
Electric storage resources such as batteries and flywheels are shaping the grid of the future. The ability of these resources to absorb and discharge electricity gives the resources operational flexibility that allows them to provide a variety of services to help keep the power grid in balance. Energy storage installations in the U.S. grew 100% in 2016. Most of the new resources were utility scale but 25% were commercial and residential systems.
As discussed previously in this blog, FERC issued a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NOPR) intended to knock down barriers to storage resource participation in the organized wholesale electricity markets administered by Regional Transmission Organizations (RTOs) and Independent System Operators (ISOs).[1] FERC’s proposal would require each RTO to revise its tariff in two ways:
- Establish market rules that recognize the physical and operational characteristics of storage resources and accommodate their participation. Storage resources that participate in wholesale markets must do so under rules designed for other types of resources.
- Allow distributed energy resource aggregators to participate in the markets. Individual distributed energy resources may be too small to meet minimum size requirements or have difficulty satisfying operational performance requirements of the markets. Allowing these resources to participate through aggregations can enable them to satisfy requirements that they could not meet on a stand-alone basis.
FERC received comments on its proposal from more than seventy entities across a broad spectrum of the industry. This post summarizes the major issues raised in the comments.Continue Reading FERC Gets Comments on Electric Storage Proposal