In response to a request from industry members, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) has extended the deadline to file comments on FERC’s notice of proposed rulemaking (NOPR) for energy storage participation in U.S. energy markets.
The comment period was extended from Jan. 30 to Feb. 13.
The request came from a group of energy associations, which said in their filing that they needed more time to consider the ramifications of the NOPR and potential resulting changes to transmission system operator (TSO) tariffs as well as coordination of TSO control centers and distributed energy resource aggregators.
FERC last November issued the NOPR that plans to direct TSOs to establish market rules to accommodate energy storage participation in organized wholesale electric markets.
As part of the NOPR, TSOs would define distributed energy resource aggregators as a type of market participant that can participate in the organized wholesale electric markets under a model that best accommodates the physical and operational characteristics of distributed energy resource aggregation.
In response to the NOPR, executive management consulting firm Schulte Associates said it was disappointed that the proposal seeks to address market challenges of distributed energy storage and aggregation of distributed energy storage without considering grid-level energy storage issues.
Schulte said in its Dec. 27 comments that it hopes FERC will also address grid-level storage issues, noting that “we believe it is likely that currently-existing, grid-level energy storage facilities are not receiving just and reasonable rates for the benefits they are providing to the wholesale grid.”
