MISO: FERC approves first storage interconnection agreement
MISO has to date lagged behind neighboring PJM Interconnection when it comes to storage. MISO has a market for short- and long-term storage and is examining the feasibility of a market for batteries capable of durations of four hours or more.
To that point, FERC said more comprehensive market rules for storage are needed and that the current ruling does not set a precedent for future storage facilities.
“The Harding Street GIA is narrowly focused on the terms necessary to interconnect Indianapolis Power’s battery facility and two existing combustion-turbine generators; the commission’s action in this proceeding, therefore, does not prejudge potential improvements to the procedures or agreements that govern the interconnection of electric storage resources in the future,” FERC explained in the ruling.
FERC said its accepted the GIA “in the interest of expeditiously connecting the battery facility to MISO’s transmission grid.”
The batteries, eight 2.5 MW blocks, will use the existing interconnection facilities of the two existing gas turbine generator units, which connect to the Harding Street South substation.
The ruling also touched on underlying issues regarding the designation of storage facilities. IPL had argued that the project was being mischaracterized and had urged FERC to view the storage facility as a transmission asset.
FERC said a “generating facility” designation was appropriate because the pro forma definition includes “device(s) for the production and/or storage for later injection of electricity identified in the interconnection request.”
