FERC approval grants greater market access to solar batteries

The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) last week approved a change to ISO New England’s tariff that allows greater access to the wholesale electricity markets for battery storage facilities charged by renewables.

The tariff revision opens up an existing wholesale market participation model, the Continuous Storage Facility (CSF) model, to storage facilities that charge exclusively from co-located generation, particularly solar panels. The change takes effect October 1.

Prior to this change, storage facilities seeking to participate under the CSF model had to be capable of injecting as well as consuming electricity from the grid. However, storage facilities with co-located generation that are incapable of consuming grid electricity are common among projects seeking to claim state incentives and beneficial tax treatment.

The tariff change also will improve the ISO’s ability to monitor and dispatch these facilities than other market participation options for inject-only storage.