Wow, talk about the Deep State in action. President* Trump promised to bring back all the coal jobs, but meanwhile the Department of Energy has been busily laying plans for next generation, long duration energy storage systems. That translates into more opportunities for bringing wind and solar power into the nation’s electricity grid, and that pretty much slams the door on the idea of reviving the nation’s coal power sector.

US coal power plants were closing at a rapid clip before Trump came into office, and coal power has kept on bleeding out under his watch. The new R&D program practically guarantees that the hurt will continue for coal miners, their families and their communities long after Trump leaves office.

More And Longer (And Cheaper) Energy Storage

CleanTechnica has been following along with the Energy Department’s work on long duration battery systems since last May, when the agency announced it would provide $30 million in funding for R&D.

The agency envisions utility scale storage systems that can deliver power to 50,000 homes over a long period of time — and not just for a few hours. They want to see systems in the range of 10 to 100 hours, preferably 100.

As if that’s not enough, low cost is also a priority. In other words, the Energy Department wants you to have your energy storage cake and eat it, too.

That pretty much cuts out today’s go-to technologies for energy storage. Lithium-ion batteries would be too expensive to scale up. Pumped hydro fits the bill for duration and capacity, but suitable sites are few and far between.

So, what’s left?

The Long Duration Energy Storage Cake

For the record, the $30 million pot comes through a program called DAYS for Duration Addition to electricitY Storage (they kind of stretched the acronym but whatever). DAYS is under the umbrella of ARPA- E, the Energy Department’s office for high risk, high reward projects.

In the latest DAYS development, last week ARPA-E sealed the deal on an award to the National Renewable Energy Laboratory of almost $2.8 million to lead an R&D team focusing on thermal energy storage.

The Midcontinent Independent System Operator (MISO) on Monday (Dec. 3) filed its official proposal with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission that some experts say will determine the future of the emerging battery storage marketplace in the U.S.

MISO, a nonprofit grid operator based in Carmel, Ind., said it filed tariff changes that advance the future deeper integration of energy storage across its 15-state footprint. MISO officials said the proposal filed with FERC was crafted in consultation with its stakeholders and reflects feedback from multiple discussions, workshops and rounds of written comments.

“We can only achieve important milestones like this through significant stakeholder involvement and extensive effort from the multiple parties involved,” said MISO Executive Vice President Richard Doying. “We look forward to the construction and implementation phases in 2019 and continued collaboration as we enhance our market design to integrate future technologies.”

Under the landmark FERC Order 841 that was approved by agency commissioners in early February, regional transmission operators and independent system operators across the U.S. are required to come up with market rules for energy storage to participate in the wholesale energy, capacity and ancillary services markets that recognize the physical and operational characteristics of the resource.

According to MISO officials, battery and other storage resources have emerged as the nation’s electric fleet has undergone significant transformation, driven by energy policy, economic realities and consumer changes. Monday’s action addresses compliance needs for the FERC, which becomes effective Dec. 3, 2019. MISO’s proposal is technology neutral and includes all technologies and/or storage mediums, officials said, including but not limited to batteries, flywheels, compressed air and pumped-hydro.

“Allowing Electric Storage Resources to participate fully in MISO’s markets will enhance competition, promote greater market efficiency and help support the resilience of the bulk power system,” said Doying.

Neoen’s 6MW frequency balancing unit

Negotiations in New Hampshire produced a pivotal test case for how home energy devices can reduce overall grid costs.

Liberty Utilities proposed a groundbreaking home battery pilot last year, in which the company would own 1,000 Tesla Powerwalls in customer homes. The customers would get backup power and a time-based retail rate; the utility would aggregate the batteries to reduce its costs for monthly and annual system peaks and to offset wires upgrades.

That concept triggered a debate among New Hampshire stakeholders about the appropriate limits of utility ownership in a competitive marketplace. Companies like Sunrun wanted industry to have a chance to participate and get time-of-use rates for their customers. And questions remained about the utility’s ability to forecast peaks and respond to them.

A settlement has emerged from those negotiations, signed November 15. Regulators held a hearing on it Thursday and will finalize their decision in the coming weeks.

The consensus document scales down Liberty’s proposal and institutes granular checkpoints it must clear to scale up. It also creates a “bring your own device” program that other companies can compete for.

Sunrun didn’t sign on, but declined to oppose the outcome. It all turned out amicably, without the bloodletting that ensued from the net-metering battles of yore.

“It shows where we’re at in 2018: A small state [and] small utility can submit a proposal for residential batteries that really moves the entire industry forward,” said Chris Rauscher, Sunrun’s public policy director for the Northeast. “We’re no longer in a cost conversation, we’re in a value conversation, and that’s exactly where we should be.”

Assuming nothing derails regulatory approval, New Hampshire could become the proving ground for several of the hottest topics in distributed energy policy.

Austin Energy is looking holistically at how storage can serve customers and the grid across the city of Austin, Texas.

The Sustainable and Holistic Integration of Energy Storage and Solar Photovoltaics (SHINES) program is harnessing utility-scale storage, distributed storage, smart inverters and data to help the local grid integrate more solar power.

How is it going since it launched earlier in the year?

We sit down with Jackie Sargent, the general manager of Austin Energy, ahead of her participation in Energy Storage Summit (San Francisco, December 11-12) to discuss early lessons from the first phase of the program.

“The value of experiencing these things firsthand cannot be overstated,” explained Sargent.

Earlier this year, the project was recognized by GTM as one of the winners of the 2018 Grid Edge Innovation Awards.

GTM: Can you reflect on learnings so far from the SHINES program?

Jackie Sargent: This project presents an opportunity to study battery storage at three levels along the utility value chain: grid-scale, commercial-scale and residential-scale. Though Austin SHINES is still in the early stages, we’ve already learned a lot about the interconnection process of putting battery storage on the distribution system. From protection system coordination for inverter-based resources to selecting the right interconnection transformer windings, and from custom battery container design to environmental controls, the value of experiencing these things firsthand cannot be overstated.

Regarding behind-the-meter (BTM) energy storage, it’s really about understanding customer value propositions. We have to ask ourselves what are the reasons a customer would want to install storage on their own and how will the proliferation of two-way resources at the grid edge impact distribution feeders. Which issues are hyper-local and which have broader grid implications? We’re eager to answer these questions as we move into future phases of the project.

This year, yet another billionaire took a big bet on energy storage – twice. First, Patrick Soon-Shiong’s company NantEnergy bought zinc-air battery manufacturer Fluidic and earlier this month, he added in Sharp’s SmartStorage division in the US.

Soon-Shiong is treading a well-worn path. Wang Chuanfu, the head of Chinese firm BYD, has seen his company become a major electric vehicle and stationary energy storage manufacturer. Elon Musk, of course, segued Tesla into stationary storage as well. And one of the solar industry’s self-made billionaires, Jifan Gao, has also moved into energy storage.

Billion-dollar companies like Aggrekko, Wartsilla and Total have all completed energy storage acquisitions in recent times.

The opportunity could hardly carry a stronger endorsement. As more territories take a leaf out of California’s book and issue a mandate for energy storage installation, the market will be transformed. California is clearly in the forefront of Soon-Shiong’s mind.

“The acquisition of Sharp’s energy systems business and the SmartStorage brand immediately creates a foothold for NantEnergy in the US, particularly in the important California market,” he said at the time of the deal.

WoodMac this week forecast that energy storage installations could hit 780GW by 2040. Back at the end of last year, one estimate of that figure was as low as 3.8GW. But Bloomberg New Energy Finance’s 2030 predictions are equally spectacular.

Wind, solar, even the ethanol industry, have all created at least one billionaire. The common denominator is scale.