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Storage technologies provide flexible resources in the market

Electricity storage has the potential to provide significant flexibility in balancing the grid. The ISO has three participation models that provide opportunities for storage technologies to participate in the wholesale ancillary services market and energy market: pump storage, non-generator resource, and proxy demand resource - load shift resource.

 

Pump Storage resources act as load while using energy to pump water to higher elevation reservoirs, and then act like generators by creating energy when releasing water back to lower reservoirs.

Non-Generator Resources (NGR) have the capability to serve as both generation and load and can be dispatched to any operating level within their entire capacity range.

Proxy demand resource - load shift resource (PDR-LSR) allows storage resources to bid decreases and increases in load. It requires two separate Resource IDs for load curtailment, which can bid from the net benefits test threshold price up to the bid cap, and for load consumption, which can bid from less than $0 to the bid floor.

Process and requirements

Participation in the ISO market requires a scheduling coordinator and ISO-certified revenue-quality meters. Bidding in ancillary services requires special certification and installation of direct telemetry. There are also requirements specific to each type of demand participation.

Market participants who wish to introduce storage resources can initiate the California ISO interconnection process through the Resource Interconnection Guide.