A quick roundup of news on storage regulation at all levels of the market lately:
Federal:
- ISOs and RTOs are currently in the planning stages for their implementation of FERC Order 841 passed last February which required a level playing field for storage assets in wholesale markets.
- In August, FERC utilized the new order to deny Southern California Edison a proposed tariff change that would allow them to treat customers with storage differently than those without.
- And this month FERC Commissioner Neil Chatterjee encouraged those same RTOs and ISOs to develop new market rules/products through which storage assets could provide essential grid functions such as frequency regulation.
- A new challenge is on the horizon with a FERC case out of Montana on how generation paired with storage should be treated under PURPA based on if and how storage effects generation sizing calculations.
States:
- There are a rising number of storage capacity mandates coming out of states all over the country including NY, MA, and NJ.
- In the meantime, incentive programs such as California’s Self-Generation Incentive Program (SGIP) was extended at the end of last month when Brown signed SB 700 into law.
- In addition to SB 700, the completion of the time-of-use rollout for all customers in CA, the self-generation rate structures in Hawaii, and the upcoming NEM 3.0 rate case in CA along with several other successor tariff decisions throughout the Midwest will affect the economics of pure solar for customers that may be balanced out with on-site storage.
- With an eye toward political timing, NV Energy just announced new solicitation for 350 MW of renewable energy paired with storage, but keep an eye on Question 3 which would mandate the deregulation of Nevada’s electricity market – and throw much of the utilities recent moves into limbo.
- Keep an eye on Arizona! While the ballot initiative to require the state to get raise their RPS to 50% under Proposition 127, the interesting regulatory issue is the docket to review the Arizona Energy Modernization Plan (AEMP) with a strategy to get to 80% non-emitting (renewable + nuclear) by 2050 including a 3GW storage target for utilities.