The detailed New York Energy Storage Roadmap lays out a comprehensive vision for using energy storage to meet the state’s energy goals, such as meeting 50% of electric power needs with clean energy sources by 2030.

Democratic Gov. Andrew Cuomo has called for an energy storage target of 1,500 MW by 2025. But the roadmap’s overall analysis, conducted by the Department of Public Service and the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority, supports an even more aggressive target, as high as 3,000 MW. And, as analysts have noted, moving the target to 2030 would better align the deadline of the state’s Clean Energy Standard with the energy storage target and allow more time to meet a higher target.

The environmental review of the roadmap found that energy target would bring positive environmental impacts such as reductions in peak load demand during critical periods, increases in the efficiency of the grid and the displacement of fossil fuel generation by allowing greater integration of renewable energy resources.

Storage systems could mitigate the impact of as much as 2 million metric tons of avoided greenhouse gas emissions and reduce the level of criteria air pollutants, such as nitrogen oxides, sulfur oxides and particulate matter, the PSC said.

With the environmental impact assessment of the roadmap approved by the PSC, the plan moves one step closer to implementation.

In a separate action, the PSC expanded the types of technologies that qualify to meet the state’s Clean Energy Standard. For the first time, some stand-alone storage systems will be eligible to help meet the clean energy target.

CARMEL, Ind. — MISO plans to hold a final Order 841 workshop on Oct. 10 to complete its collection of stakeholder opinions on its storage participation model, which will include an agreement for distribution-level storage but leave storage dispatch optimization to a later filing.

Here’s what the RTO has decided thus far.

Pro Forma for Distribution-connected Storage

MISO’s draft pro forma agreement for storage connected at the distribution level requires storage:

• Be registered and modeled in MISO;
• Secure agreements with distribution facilities so energy can be delivered to the MISO transmission system;
• Be able to receive MISO operating instructions; and
• Provide MISO with facility measurements and settlement meter data.

The agreement also specifies that MISO will make sure a storage resource owner isn’t charged twice for energy when it pays retail rates for wholesale charging. MISO said it will exclude the charging energy from wholesale rates in its settlements.

During a Sept. 13 Market Subcommittee meeting, Coalition of Midwest Power Producers CEO Mark Volpe asked if the agreement opens an avenue for distribution-connected storage assets to avoid MISO’s interconnection queue.

“This is not a way to circumvent the interconnection queue,” Director of Market Design Kevin Vannoy said.

“So you’re saying that distribution-level storage must go through the interconnection queue?” Volpe asked.

“I don’t have a definitive answer for that,” Vannoy responded.

Consumers Energy’s Jeff Beattie pointed out that many qualifying facilities that utilities must purchase power from under the Public Utility Regulatory Policies Act are connected at the distribution level.

Storage anywhere

Is that cycle worth it?

Power grid infrastructure in many parts of the United States is aging and struggling to meet increased electricity demand. In some specific areas, like ports and industrial facilities, high-powered equipment cannot be fully deployed because the grid cannot meet the intense but sporadic load demands.

The options for these necessary upgrades range widely, but can include protection equipment upgrades, pole replacement, communication networks, new lines for distribution of electricity, voltage support and system capacity increases.

With their flexibility and innovative features, ABB’s state-of-the-art microgrids and battery energy storage systems (BESS), are providing utilities and industries with innovative alternatives.

In Baltimore, MD, in response to growth and increased demand for power, ABB is supplying a BESS to Baltimore Gas and Electric (BGE). The utility was forecasting an increase in peak demand that would cause equipment to exceed its thermal capacity.

BG&E had to evaluate the cost to perform a capacity upgrade of its substation equipment versus the costs of utilizing energy storage solution. ABB proposed a BESS solution that would be quick and cost-efficient to deploy.

The BESS, commissioned in March, is key for BGE, as it enables the utility to use electricity stored within the battery for the periods of this increased peak demand. The peak shaving made possible with the BESS gives the utility the power reliability needed through an alternative solution, one that is now being considered by more and more utilities across the continent.

Storage anywhere

Is that cycle worth it?

Energy Storage North America (ESNA), the most influential gathering of policy, technology and market leaders in energy storage, applauds Governor Jerry Brown and the California State Legislature for passing landmark Senate Bill (SB) 100, which sets the largest-scale zero-emission electricity targets ever established for a U.S. state.

From November 6-8 in Pasadena, California, ESNA sponsors, exhibitors, speakers and attendees will gather to demonstrate that the energy storage industry is ready with technology and deployment solutions to successfully support a zero-emission grid. Since 2010, California has procured more than 1,500 MW of new energy storage capacity; North American energy users and utilities have collectively procured over 2 GW of advanced energy storage projects to date.

“Energy Storage is critical to supporting the increasing penetration of renewables throughout North America and the globe, and our community is ready to deliver,” said Janice Lin, Co-founder and Chair of ESNA. “ESNA brings together the key decision makers who are demonstrating the game-changing role energy storage can play to achieve grid transformation. Storage has proven its ability to integrate intermittent renewable energy and optimize existing assets for a cleaner, more affordable and reliable grid.”

California investor-owned utilities are already demonstrating their leadership toward achieving SB 100 goals. For example, last month Southern California Edison (SCE) submitted its Integrated Resource Plan (IRP) that highlighted the significant role of energy storage in achieving the state’s electricity sector greenhouse gas (GHG) emission reduction goals by 2030. SCE models showed that in order to reduce its grid-based GHG emissions to 28 million metric tons by 2030, California load-serving entities would need to procure an additional 9,604 MW of energy storage.

Several of the proposals approved by CAISO’s board on Wednesday were part of the third and final phase of the Energy Storage and Distributed Energy Resources (ESDER) initiative that stakeholders launched to foster greater participation of those resources in the wholesale market.

The proposals remove one more set of barriers and would allow greater participation of DERs and energy storage in the wholesale market, CAISO spokesman Steven Greenlee told Utility Dive.

The proposal approved for energy storage would allow BTM batteries to more easily consume energy during oversupply conditions and return that energy to the system during times of need.

BTM batteries can already participate in CAISO’s day-ahead and real time markets, but the proposed change to ISO rules would allow two resource identifications for one storage unit, depending on whether it is charging or discharging energy.

The rule change would create a new product, the proxy demand resource-load shift resource (PDR-LSR) that would help avoid confusion when a storage unit receives conflicting dispatch signals. In addition, it would allow a storage device to enter separate bids for charging and discharging.

That would help “incentivize behind-the-meter storage operators to operate their unit in alignment with grid needs,” Greenlee said. For example, he said, it would provide a signal for battery operators not to send energy to the grid when it is not needed or to charge when the energy is needed. The proposal would require direct metering of BTM batteries.

There is a separate proceeding underway at CAISO that is studying how transmission-connected storage assets can participate in the ISO’s energy and ancillary services markets.