New England utility regulators have gathered in Maine for the 71st annual symposium of the New England Conference of Public Utilities Commissioners.
NECPUC is a non-profit corporation which provides regional regulatory assistance on matters of common concern to public utilities commissions of the six New England states. Its board of directors is composed of public utilities commissioners from the six New England states. NECPUC meets regularly throughout the year and sponsors an annual symposium on regulatory issues.
NECPUC holds its 71st annual symposium in Cape Neddick, Maine, from May 20-23, 2018. The agenda for the 2018 NECPUC event includes programs focused on topics affecting the New England utility landscape. For the energy sector, these include a plenary session on wholesale markets and how consumers are impacted by "reliability-centric market challenges," as well as a panel on advancing electric vehicle infrastructure in New England. Another set of panels focuses on how to analyze, regulate, and manage risks of high-impact, low-frequency events like cybersecurity attacks or extreme weather. Other panels cover water, telecommunications, and natural gas topics.
Speakers scheduled to appear include Maine Governor Paul LePage and Federal Energy Regulatory Commission Commissioner Robert Powelson, as well as commissioners from numerous state public utilities commissions.
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Showing posts with label customer. Show all posts
Showing posts with label customer. Show all posts
FERC Order No. 784 boosts energy storage
Wednesday, July 24, 2013
Energy storage - the ability to store electricity and deliver it to the grid as needed - has the potential to create great value for society. New technologies, ranging from batteries to mechanical flywheels, are expanding options for energy storage. Now, a federal rule issued last week known as Order No. 784 significantly expands opportunities for energy storage providers to capitalize on these advances.
Traditionally, electricity has been difficult to store. While society has been able to generate electricity for over a century, technologies to store that electricity once it has been generated have been elusive. As a result, electric grid operators have needed to balance the supply and demand for electricity in real-time, leading to costly inefficiencies like the continual need to ramp generators up and down. To keep the grid balanced, grid operators rely on so-called "ancillary services" like regulation and frequency response made possible by fine-tuning generators' output -- or now by energy storage technologies.
Despite recent federal rulings like the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission's Order No. 755 enabling enhanced compensation for energy storage, the market for energy storage has been restricted by regulation. Until last week, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission restricted third parties from selling ancillary services at market-based rates to public utility transmission providers under a 1999 ruling known as the Avista order. Under Avista, transmission customers had two choices for how to procure their share of the grid's ancillary services. First, customers could purchase ancillary services from their local public utility. Second, customers could self-supply regulation and frequency response services - but could only do so from resources deemed comparable to those used by their public utility. This restriction stripped away the benefit of self-supplying ancillary services because customers couldn't tailor their purchase of regulation and frequency response services to their own needs, but rather had to buy services based on their transmission provider's overall resource mix. For example, customers were powerless to choose resources that could respond more quickly or more accurately than those used by their utility, meaning customers faced the risk of buying too much - or too little - ancillary services.
Order No. 784 significantly reforms the Commission's ancillary service regulations. By November, public utilities must take into account the speed and accuracy of regulation resources, which opens the door for greater efficiency in transmission customers' purchase of regulation resources. For example, Order No. 784 allows customers to save money by buying a smaller amount of faster or more accurate energy storage resources.
This flexibility creates a premium value for providers of these fast or accurate energy storage solutions. Order No. 784 also eases the barriers for third-party entry into ancillary service markets, and revises accounting and reporting requirements to improve market transparency and better account for public utilities' use of energy storage devices.
Order No. 784 creates significant opportunities for utility customers, as it opens the door for lower-cost and more precise ancillary services. The order also creates opportunities for innovative companies developing and implementing energy storage technologies like batteries, compressed air, and flywheels, as Order No. 784 both increases consumer demand for these technologies and reduces developers' barriers to entry into the markets.
For more information about Order No. 784 and the opportunities it creates, contact Todd Griset at Preti Flaherty at 207-623-5300.
Traditionally, electricity has been difficult to store. While society has been able to generate electricity for over a century, technologies to store that electricity once it has been generated have been elusive. As a result, electric grid operators have needed to balance the supply and demand for electricity in real-time, leading to costly inefficiencies like the continual need to ramp generators up and down. To keep the grid balanced, grid operators rely on so-called "ancillary services" like regulation and frequency response made possible by fine-tuning generators' output -- or now by energy storage technologies.
Despite recent federal rulings like the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission's Order No. 755 enabling enhanced compensation for energy storage, the market for energy storage has been restricted by regulation. Until last week, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission restricted third parties from selling ancillary services at market-based rates to public utility transmission providers under a 1999 ruling known as the Avista order. Under Avista, transmission customers had two choices for how to procure their share of the grid's ancillary services. First, customers could purchase ancillary services from their local public utility. Second, customers could self-supply regulation and frequency response services - but could only do so from resources deemed comparable to those used by their public utility. This restriction stripped away the benefit of self-supplying ancillary services because customers couldn't tailor their purchase of regulation and frequency response services to their own needs, but rather had to buy services based on their transmission provider's overall resource mix. For example, customers were powerless to choose resources that could respond more quickly or more accurately than those used by their utility, meaning customers faced the risk of buying too much - or too little - ancillary services.
Order No. 784 significantly reforms the Commission's ancillary service regulations. By November, public utilities must take into account the speed and accuracy of regulation resources, which opens the door for greater efficiency in transmission customers' purchase of regulation resources. For example, Order No. 784 allows customers to save money by buying a smaller amount of faster or more accurate energy storage resources.
This flexibility creates a premium value for providers of these fast or accurate energy storage solutions. Order No. 784 also eases the barriers for third-party entry into ancillary service markets, and revises accounting and reporting requirements to improve market transparency and better account for public utilities' use of energy storage devices.
Order No. 784 creates significant opportunities for utility customers, as it opens the door for lower-cost and more precise ancillary services. The order also creates opportunities for innovative companies developing and implementing energy storage technologies like batteries, compressed air, and flywheels, as Order No. 784 both increases consumer demand for these technologies and reduces developers' barriers to entry into the markets.
For more information about Order No. 784 and the opportunities it creates, contact Todd Griset at Preti Flaherty at 207-623-5300.
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