Researchers on the Pacific Northwest Nationwide Lab (PNNL) have developed a brand new framework to pay for power storage as a dual-use instrument.
From pv journal USA
PNNL researchers are investigating how power storage used as a transmission asset will also be operated and compensated as a market participant, notably in power markets.
For example of storage getting used as transmission, Jeremy Twitchell, a senior power analyst at PNNL, stated in a current webinar that Midwest grid operator MISO has chosen a $12 million storage challenge. as a transmission asset in Wisconsin, moderately than a $13 million transmission challenge. MISO’s storage-as-transmission challenge will get well its prices via MISO’s transmission system charges, that are permitted by the Federal Power Regulatory Fee (FERC), he stated, and won’t take part in power markets.
The chance for twin use in such a challenge arises as a result of “even with totally contracted, closely used transmission strains, there’s unused capability more often than not,” Twitchell stated. “We construct the grid based mostly on peak demand plus reserve margins, however we’re solely at that peak a number of hours a yr.”
Meaning storage, when it isn’t getting used as transmission, “can do different issues,” he stated. FERC “acknowledged this in 2017,” Twitchell stated, and issued a coverage assertion saying that storage shipped as a transmission asset also can present market companies.
“FERC is doing this to scale back system prices,” he stated, including that FERC cautions {that a} storage asset can not get well all prices as a transmission asset, and in addition recovers all price as a era asset, “and hold all of it,” as a result of on this case there isn’t a price discount.
The California Impartial System Operator (CAISO) and MISO started exploring how to answer FERC’s nonbinding coverage assertion, Twitchell stated, with CAISO contemplating how market revenues might be shared with clients, however each have stalled. of their processes with out fixing the complexity of market participation and cost. for dual-use storage.
With out clear compensation mechanisms for builders to get well the prices of power storage investments, the investments “is not going to proceed,” stated Charlie Vartanian, a senior technical fellow at PNNL who moderated within the webinar.
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