Advanced Energy Perspectives

Batteries and other energy storage resources are increasingly touted as a critical piece of the clean energy transition – but, as a relatively new and dynamic resource, evaluating and integrating storage projects requires a fresh approach. On October 18, the Rhode Island Public Utilities Commission (PUC) released a much-anticipated final report regarding the value of and need for energy storage resources in the state. Although there are insights from both the process and final document that are instructive to policymakers in Rhode Island and beyond, the report lacks the necessary urgency and ambition to accelerate storage adoption and create a vibrant energy storage market in the Ocean State. 

Grid operators today are managing a changing portfolio mix while facing new system reliability challenges, such as extreme weather events occurring with greater frequency. As the clean energy transition accelerates, it’s vital that grid operators accurately understand how much they can count on different generating resources. They do so by evaluating the resource adequacy, or capacity value, of the resources available to determine how to meet total demand. But what happens when those methods of valuing capacity overlook certain outage risks? Some generating resources gain more reliability credit than they deserve. That is indeed happening with conventional power plants (coal, oil, and natural gas), which may be overvalued by as much as 20% under traditional methods. As new analysis commissioned by AEE shows, it’s time to get capacity right.