This article, from law firm Bricker & Eckler LLP, is authored by Dylan Borchers.
Author Dylan Borchers
A change that the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) passed in July will take effect and many say it will be a significant boon to the development of energy storage systems, Midwest Energy News reports. Advocates say that although energy storage systems are “essential to the growth of renewable energy,” regulators and policymakers seldom focused on them in the past, which created a “lack of clarity” that made such proposals appear risky to utilities. Whether using battery, hydro, compressed air or any other energy storage technology, FERC Order 784 “basically permits enterprises other than large utilities to sell ‘ancillary services’ – power sources that can be tapped quickly when needed to meet a rapidly changing supply or demand situation.”
In September, Virginia-based AES Energy Storage, LLC commenced commercial operation of its 40 megawatt grid-scale storage system in Dayton, which it described as the largest such facility in Ohio. The project serves to provide “fast-response frequency regulation services to PJM Interconnection to stabilize the grid that serves more than 60 million people” and is located at Dayton Power & Light’s (DP&L) Tait generating station in Moraine. In a story announcing the new facility’s opening, financial services company The Motley Fool reported that a recent IMS Research Report estimates that “the global energy storage industry will increase from approximately $200 million in 2012 to $19 billion by 2017.”
Filed Under: Energy storage, News
