GridLab has launched a new engagement and educational effort, CleanNERC, to represent the interests of clean-energy technologies and increase the understanding of these technologies by the regulators of electric reliability.
CleanNERC’s mandate is to work with reliability authorities to increase the understanding of renewable sources, such as wind and solar, as well as energy storage technologies, to promote continued reliable integration of clean energy onto the grid.
A primary focus will be participation at the North American Electric Reliability Corporation (NERC), and providing NERC and its stakeholders with information about the capabilities of inverter-based resources like wind, solar, and battery storage. These new technologies can offer superior performance in providing many grid reliability services, yet rules and standards that were developed with other technologies in mind do not always accommodate them or use them to their full advantage.
“We look forward to partnering with CleanNERC to build on the wind industry’s history of being good citizens of the grid, and working with system operators and planners to provide clear rules of the road so wind can continue to contribute to system reliability and resilience.” – Sari Fink, Senior Director of Electricity & Transmission Policy, American Wind Energy Association
CleanNERC will advocate for non-discriminatory rules that allow all resources to contribute to grid reliability.
“Renewable power and storage are game-changing applications in the shift toward a modernized U.S. power grid that offers economic savings and improved resilience and reliability,” said Todd Foley, Senior Vice President of Policy & Government Affairs, American Council on Renewable Energy or ACORE. “We look forward to working with CleanNERC, which will play a critical stakeholder role with NERC to ensure the compelling grid reliability capabilities of these technologies are fully recognized.”
Wind, solar, and battery storage are similar in that they all use inverters and power electronics to convert the direct current (DC) energy they produce to the alternating current (AC) that is widely used on the power system today. These power electronics generally offer grid operators a faster and more customizable response than conventional power plants. Some aspects of power system operations also change with large amounts of wind and solar energy, and reliability authorities and grid operators need to change how they plan and operate their power systems as the resource mix changes.
Electric reliability and resilience are a hot topic, and CleanNERC fills a key educational and participation void.
“Energy storage serves as a central catalyst for a more flexible and reliable grid, and the NERC reliability rules and standards must evolve to incorporate these advances. We look forward to engaging with CleanNERC in this important work,” said Marissa Gillett, Vice President of External Relations, Energy Storage Association
Filed Under: Energy storage, News, Policy
