Windpower Engineering & Development

  • Home
  • Articles
    • Most recent posts
    • News
    • Featured
  • Resources
    • Digital issues
    • Podcasts
    • Suppliers
    • Webinars
    • Events
  • Videos
  • 2025 Leadership
    • 2024 Winners
    • 2023 Winners
    • 2022 Winners
  • Magazine
  • Advertise
  • Subscribe

California ISO approves grid enhancements to support energy storage

By Michelle Froese | February 5, 2016

With a continued goal to operate a cleaner energy grid, the California Independent System Operator (ISO) Board of Governors has approved several proposals that support improved integration of storage and demand response resources in the wholesale electricity market.

The Board also approved replacing aging technologies to improve that ability for renewable energy resources to respond quickly to periods of steep increases in demand.

Print

“The proposals continue our ongoing efforts in creating a flexible grid that will serve us well into the 21st century,” said Steve Berberich, ISO President and CEO. “Infusing our market design with more flexibility means more efficient grid operations that help keep costs low, meet state and federal environmental goals, and strengthen grid reliability to meet the needs of sophisticated energy consumers across the west.”

The approved proposals include market design enhancements that provide more flexible rules to consider the special operating characteristics of a particular resource. These considerations allow storage and demand response resources to more easily participate in the wholesale market, helping to lower carbon emissions and increase grid reliability.

The Board also approved a proposal to create a new energy product to meet ramping needs. Ramping — or steep increases in demand over a short period of time — often involves thousands of megawatts in which many power plants must be ready to provide energy when called upon.

The flexible ramping product will compensate generation resources that have the technology capabilities to respond quickly to real-time conditions. This capability supports renewable resource integration and environmental goals across the west more efficiently and economically.

The ISO Board agreed with a staff proposal to undertake a capital improvement project to design and implement a new energy management system, as well as replace aging technology infrastructure. The $13.5 million project will not require any debt financing and will be funded from capital reserves on-hand.

The energy management system is highly sophisticated software and hardware technology that supports critical grid operations. A new system will better monitor and control the integration of renewable resources, energy storage devices and demand response aggregations, improve grid reliability, and better support an expanded regional market.

The Board decisions will be filed at the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission for its review.

Find more about these decisions and the entire Board agenda by clicking here.


Filed Under: Energy storage
Tagged With: ISO
 

About The Author

Michelle Froese

Related Articles Read More >

New deal opens opportunities for wind + storage development in Southwest Power Pool
Southern Company launches new Energy Storage Research Center
BNEF: Energy storage investments boom as battery costs halve in next decade
Report: U.S. utility-scale batteries give renewables a big lift

Podcasts

Wind Spotlight: Looking back at a year of Thrive with ZF Wind Power
See More >

Windpower Engineering & Development Digital Edition Archive

Digital Edition

Explore the full archive of digital issues of Windpower Engineering & Development, presented in a high-quality, user-friendly format. Access current and past editions, clip, share, and download valuable content from the industry’s leading wind power engineering resource.

Windpower Engineering & Development
  • Wind Articles
  • Solar Power World
  • Subscribe to Windpower Engineering
  • About Us/Contact Us

Copyright © 2025 WTWH Media LLC. All Rights Reserved. The material on this site may not be reproduced, distributed, transmitted, cached or otherwise used, except with the prior written permission of WTWH Media
Privacy Policy | Advertising

Search Windpower Engineering & Development

  • Home
  • Articles
    • Most recent posts
    • News
    • Featured
  • Resources
    • Digital issues
    • Podcasts
    • Suppliers
    • Webinars
    • Events
  • Videos
  • 2025 Leadership
    • 2024 Winners
    • 2023 Winners
    • 2022 Winners
  • Magazine
  • Advertise
  • Subscribe