Dive Brief:

  • The grid operator of the largest wholesale market in the U.S. asked federal regulators on Tuesday to act by Nov. 3 on their compliance filing to allow market participation for energy storage. 
  • PJM Interconnection filed its compliance with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission’s (FERC) Order 841 last year on Dec. 3 and federal regulators directed market operators to implement those tariff provisions within a year.
  • Other regional transmission operators (RTOs) and independent system operators (ISOs) have asked federal regulators for a delay from the one-year deadline. Many updated plans: PJM submitted an amended open access transmission tariff for storage on May 1.

Dive Insight:

PJM warned FERC it “may need to seek a modified effective date for its associated tariff records,” as its Dec. 3 deadline is fast approaching.

The grid operator needs at least one month prior to the new tariffs taking effect for stakeholders “to best allocate their resources in the weeks leading up to a ‘go live’ date,” according to the notice.

PJM did not mark a specific date for implementation as it is contingent on federal regulatory action.

Southwest Power Pool also left an unnamed date for the Order 841 delay it requested in February. The Midcontinent ISO wrote FERC in May requesting a delay to implement its energy storage market participation model by early 2021. 

The Energy Storage Association asked FERC in March to provide a backstop deadline for SPP’s implementation, and might respond similarly to open-ended implementation deadlines.

“[I]f the Commission does not act on PJM’s compliance filing in this proceeding prior to December 3, 2019, PJM will not activate its Energy Storage Resource participation model on December 3, 2019, and will refrain from doing so going forward absent further Commission action and/or guidance,” PJM wrote.

However, the commission has a large backlog of orders to prioritize and the White House is starting a nomination process to fill one of the two vacant FERC seats.

The next FERC commission meeting is Oct. 17, but the agenda has not been released.