As the energy landscape undergoes a significant transformation with the growing integration of renewable energy sources, regulatory frameworks are evolving to address new challenges and opportunities. The North American Electric Reliability Corporation (NERC) has introduced updates to its standards concerning inverter-based resources (IBRs) such as solar photovoltaic (PV) systems, wind turbines, and battery storage. These changes reflect the increasing role of IBRs in the grid and aim to ensure continued reliability and stability. This article delves into NERC’s regulatory changes regarding inverter based resources, exploring their implications, challenges, and the path forward for stakeholders. The NERC Rules of Procedure and Standards changes will entangle IBR owners and operators that were not eligible for NERC registration previously, resulting in a significant impact on smaller IBR resources. CLICK HERE FOR MORE
As renewable energy resources continue to gain market share, Battery Energy Storage Systems (BESS) are increasingly being used to support use-cases such as renewables firming, peak management, ancillary services, energy and carbon arbitrage, storage as a transmission asset, and capacity for resource adequacy. Among monetary based use cases, the economics of new solar and wind installations can generally be improved when paired with energy storage. Flow Batteries (FB) are now being evaluated in utility resource planning scenarios, and depending on the use case may be a viable alternative to lithium-ion batteries (LIB). FBs are proving to be a viable technology that will begin to displace LIB deployments due to their potential to provide low-cost Long Duration Energy Storage (LDES) (e.g. 10+ hour duration) and maintain performance over lengthy contract terms (20+ years). CLICK HERE FOR MORE