California regulators approve measures to propel energy storage, DERs
Several of the proposals approved by CAISO’s board on Wednesday were part of the third and final phase of the Energy Storage and Distributed Energy Resources (ESDER) initiative that stakeholders launched to foster greater participation of those resources in the wholesale market.
The proposals remove one more set of barriers and would allow greater participation of DERs and energy storage in the wholesale market, CAISO spokesman Steven Greenlee told Utility Dive.
The proposal approved for energy storage would allow BTM batteries to more easily consume energy during oversupply conditions and return that energy to the system during times of need.
BTM batteries can already participate in CAISO’s day-ahead and real time markets, but the proposed change to ISO rules would allow two resource identifications for one storage unit, depending on whether it is charging or discharging energy.
The rule change would create a new product, the proxy demand resource-load shift resource (PDR-LSR) that would help avoid confusion when a storage unit receives conflicting dispatch signals. In addition, it would allow a storage device to enter separate bids for charging and discharging.
That would help “incentivize behind-the-meter storage operators to operate their unit in alignment with grid needs,” Greenlee said. For example, he said, it would provide a signal for battery operators not to send energy to the grid when it is not needed or to charge when the energy is needed. The proposal would require direct metering of BTM batteries.
There is a separate proceeding underway at CAISO that is studying how transmission-connected storage assets can participate in the ISO’s energy and ancillary services markets.
