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How can U.S. transmission grids and wholesale energy markets adapt to the gigawatts of energy storage coming online over the next decade?  In the near future, the scale of the batteries serving U.S. power grids is set to explode, increasing from about 1.5 gigawatts today to tens or hundreds of gigawatts by 2030. These batteries will play a vital role in shifting intermittent wind and solar power from when it’s produced to when it’s needed and serving broader grid services needs on an increasingly decarbonizing grid.  But as a resource that can both absorb and discharge energy at a mom...

Friday, January 29, 2021 FERC Proposes Financial Assurance Measures for Hydropower Licensees On January 19, 2021, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) issued a Notice of Inquiry (NOI) inviting comments on whether FERC should require financial assurance measures in hydropower licenses and other authorizations.  Triggered by recent public safety events, the NOI explains that a number of hydropower projects are non-operational or out of compliance with the license and the licensees cannot afford to address environmental or safety issues to meet FERC’s standards.  Based...

Wednesday, January 27, 2021 Recently certain policy advocates have suggested that the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) should attempt to revitalize the Federal Power Act Section 216 “backstop siting” authority as a means of addressing climate change.  Their objective is to facilitate the construction of more long-haul transmission lines from areas with excess renewable generation, so zero-emitting generation can reach more markets. This post does not comment on that objective.  It comments on the backstop siting authority.  Specifically, it discusses whether FERC�...

3 Min Read FILE PHOTO: Democratic 2020 U.S. presidential candidate and former Vice President Joe Biden walks past solar panels while touring the Plymouth Area Renewable Energy Initiative in Plymouth, New Hampshire, U.S., June 4, 2019. REUTERS/Brian Snyder/File Photo WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President Joe Biden on Thursday named Richard Glick, a Democrat, to chair the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, where he could eventually lead the panel to consider lowering barriers for emerging clean energy technologies. Glick was appointed by former President Donald Trump to the commission in A...

Rob Gramlich, president of Grid Strategies, has a simple explanation for why U.S. transmission grid policy has stalled the growth of wind and solar power.  “If you talk to a developer, they will say [that] the grid operators and transmission owners are woefully slow and unpredictable in terms of what it costs to connect, and the process is extremely frustrating,” he said in a Monday interview.   “If you talk to the grid operators, they’ll say, 'Renewables developers keep throwing in different projects, [so] I have to study each of them — and when I give them an answer, they drop...