FERC Tightens Regulations for Inverter Based Resources

FERC-Regulatory

By Renewable Energy World:

The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) issued “new mandatory standards for inverter-based resources (IBRs) in an effort to enhance the reliability of the bulk electric system. IBRs are solar photovoltaic, wind, fuel cell and battery storage resources that use power electronic devices to change direct current power to alternating current power, to be transmitted on the bulk-power system.

In its November 17 action orders, FERC focused on three IBR-relateded actions:

  • An order directing the North American Electric Reliability Corp. (NERC) to develop a plan to register the entities that own and operate IBRs;
  • A Notice of Proposed Rulemaking to direct NERC to develop reliability standards for IBRs that cover data sharing, model validation, planning and operational studies, and performance requirements; and
  • An order approving reliability standards that are related to IBRs, which NERC proposed earlier in 2022.”

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DOE Will Implement $350 Million in Long-Duration Energy Storage Projects

DOE-Energy-Storage

By T&D World:

The US Department of Energy (DOE) will deploy long-duration energy storage (LDES) projects for maintaining power delivery for “10 to 24 hours or longer to support a low-cost, reliable, carbon-free electric grid. Funded in part by President Biden’s Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, this funding opportunity will advance new renewable energy technologies, enhance the capabilities of customers and communities to integrate grid storage more effectively, increase grid resilience, and expand America’s global leadership in energy storage.

The Biden-Harris Administration, through the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) has announced $350 million for these emerging” type projects.

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DOE: Distributed Energy Resources Need to Be Designed with Cybersecurity Protection

Cyber-protection-of-DERs

By Utility Dive:

Distributed Energy Resources (DERs) present major obstacles in grid reliability and protection against cyberattacks and threats. DOE states “they should be designed with security as a ‘core component.’

An attack on distributed solar or battery storage resources would have ‘negligible impact’ on grid reliability today, DOE said, but the capacity of DERs on the electric system is expected to quadruple by 2025 and the agency warned that each of those systems could be hacked.”

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The DOE Announces $1 Billion Plan for Improving Power Systems to Rural Areas

Rural-Electric

By T&D World:

The US Department of Energy (DOE) is seeking information (RFIs) from rural areas in order to improve power generation to rural and remote users. DOE will spend $1 Billion for this plan to enhance the power grid by strengthening the power “resilience, reliability, and availability of energy systems, while simultaneously helping communities unlock the public health and cost-saving benefits to cleaner, and more efficient energy providers.”

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Dominion Energy Proposes New Solar and Energy Storage Projects in Virginia

Dominion-PV-and-Energy-Storage

By Power Engineering:

“Dominion Energy has proposed nearly two dozen new solar and energy storage projects, according to new filings with Virginia regulators. If approved by the Virginia State Corporation Commission (SCC), the projects will provide more than 800 MW of electricity.

Ten solar and storage projects totaling nearly 500 MW would be directly owned and operated by Dominion. The proposal also includes PPAs with 13 solar and storage projects, totaling more than 300 MW.

Construction of the projects is projected to support nearly 4,800 clean energy jobs and will generate more than $920 million in economic benefits across Virginia.”

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AES Increases Its Battery Energy Storage by an Additional 908 Megawatt-hours in California

AES-Energy-Storage

By Renewable Energy World: AES confirmed two new future battery storage sites in Lancaster CA for a total of 227 MW / 908 MWh capacity. “The two facilities are expected to provide a boost to California’s grid, storing renewable energy to be dispatched during periods of high demand.”

AES is awarding contracts for both Clean Power Alliance and PG&E for purchasing the renewable energy from its Luna and Lancaster (LAB) facilities. “In its own announcement, Fluence said the LAB system will use its Mosaic platform for intelligent bidding in the state’s wholesale market, operated by CAISO. Mosaic will “integrate directly with Gridstack, processing operating constraints and parameters in real-time, and employ advanced machine learning and artificial intelligence to generate bids that maximize LAB’s market earnings.”

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