March 30, 2010

The New York ISO is seeing power storage projects line up to connect to its grid and it released a white paper yesterday looking into the resource.

"Energy storage can play a valuable role in the continued development of New York's renewable power resources," said CEO Stephen Whitley.  "For example, the variable nature of wind generation poses special challenges to grid operators, such as the NYISO, that must constantly balanced the supply of and demand for electricity on the grid."

Beacon Power is building a 20 mw flywheel energy storage facility in Stephentown, NY.  AES Energy Storage has proposed three 20 mw battery facilities in Broome, Onondaga and Niagara counties.

NYISO already has a long experience with storage, with New York Power Authority's Blenheim-Gilboa facility ranking as the fifth largest pumped storage facility in the country.  The 1,100 mw project has been running since 1973 and was recently upgraded.

Those projects will be able to participate in NYISO's regulation services market after FERC approved rule changes last year.  Regulation services are currently provided by power plants that cut back on output, but storage can instantly switch to being a generator from load and ideally suited for the service.

Batteries, flywheels and other storage devices can release energy very quickly, but they get drained speedily compared to generation.

Storage can fill up when prices are very low overnight and then discharge when they rise during the peak hours of the day. 

They can also be compensated through fast-response service, which the highest paid ancillary service in NYISO's market.  Costs of such regulation services have been rising in recent years and that has helped attract attention from storage developers.