Revisions aimed at enabling energy storage’s participation in wholesale markets, proposed by New England’s Independent System Operator (ISO) have been accepted by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC), effective 1 April this year.
Legislators in Minnesota have begun the first steps to establishing fair or optimal market conditions for the deployment of energy storage, setting out rules for determining the value of storage to the network.
Arizona Public Service (APS) has announced a plan to make solar energy dispatchable into the evening using batteries, calling for the deployment of 850MW of energy storage by 2025.
The installation will be used to provide “critical peaking capacity” and “increased” grid reliability. AES will provide a system with a four-hour duration based on Fluence’s Advancion platform. It will be leased under a 20-year contract with AES the owner and operator of the project.
Flow battery maker Avalon has initiated a novel business model aimed at lowering the cost of deployment of its energy storage units, effectively ‘renting’ the electrolytes in the devices to a customer in California.
After China connected a huge battery to a project combining solar, wind and other generation sources, a US utility project has just been announced which will likewise combine solar and wind with a grid-scale battery.
Solar-plus-storage systems in ordinary households will provide 20MW of energy capacity in New England, with Sunrun announcing the award of a contract from the state’s ISO (independent system operator).
Tesla will acquire Maxwell Technologies, it was announced this week, although it is not clear yet which of Maxwell’s product lines, including ultracapacitors, are of most interest to the Silicon Valley automaker and new energy company.
Uncertainty persists around the impact bankruptcy proceedings brought about at investor-owned utility Pacific Gas & Electric (PG&E) could have on renewables contracts and energy storage projects as it faces “extensive litigation” and “significant liabilities” for California wildfires.
