The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission’s Order 841 aims to reduce barriers to the deployment of energy storage in wholesale power markets.
It lays the foundation for the energy storage market to grow by as much as five fold to 50 GW over the next decade. But at least half of that potential growth would depend on the development of state, not federal, policies to support energy storage, according to a new report by The Brattle Group.
FERC’s order has been hailed as a landmark in the development of energy storage markets. It directs the operators of wholesale power markets — regional transmission organizations (RTOs) and independent system operators (ISOs) — to remove barriers that could keep storage resources from realizing their full value.
The Brattle report and the FERC order also coincide with the release of the 2017 U.S. Energy Storage Monitor by GTM Research and the Energy Storage Association, which found 100 MWh of grid connected storage deployed in fourth-quarter 2017. GTM expects the U.S. energy storage market will almost double in 2018 alone, with more than 1,000 MWh of storage deployed this year.
And the groundwork laid by FERC Order 841 “will further encourage energy storage deployment throughout 2018 and beyond as the industry builds toward a goal of realizing 35 GW by 2025,” Energy Storage Association CEO Kelly Speakes-Backman said in a statement.
According to the Brattle report, at least half of the 50 GW energy storage market it forecasts unfolding over the next decade could come from opening up the wholesale power markets to energy storage. But the greater part of the potential growth has to come from energy storage applications that serve the transmission and distribution sectors, which are largely beyond FERC’s jurisdiction.
Recent Comments