This November 2013, new and improved Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) regulations adopted in Order No. 784, Third-Party Provision of Ancillary Services; Accounting and Financial Reporting for New Electric Storage Technologies, will go into effect. FERC adopted these rule changes with the intent of fostering opportunities for energy storage technologies such as compressed air energy storage, regenerative fuel cells, batteries, superconducting magnetic energy storage, flywheels and thermal energy storage systems to participate in electricity markets and supply ancillary services to wholesale electric market participants and electric transmission providers. In California, the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) issued a proposed decision earlier this month to adopt new energy storage procurement requirements for the state’s three largest investor-owned utilities, as well as retail electric suppliers and community choice aggregators.

FERC -

The FERC rule changes stem from initiatives that FERC has undertaken to consider potential barriers that its policies might be creating to energy storage’s participation in markets for ancillary services, and to respond to calls from buyers and sellers to facilitate opportunities for energy storage to supply needed services by providing greater transparency and certainty. FERC also wanted to address issues related to accounting for, and reporting of sales from, energy storage devices that, if left unresolved, could impair the ability of these resources to participate in markets for ancillary services and other services subject to FERC’s jurisdiction.