The last two weeks of highlights for grid technical news include an article favorably comparing battery storage technology to fossil-fuel-based peakers, a proposal for EV charging on highways, a large new RFP for offshore wind energy in MA, challenges to ISO-NE proposed plan for winter fuel storage, a startup’s smart electrical plane, a call for more competition in the power sector, an auction for energy storage in areas other than NE, performance-based regulation in CT, and an argument for how to streamline transmission permitting.

VPPs provide same resource adequacy as gas peakers, large batteries at up to 60% less cost: study 5/5/23 Utility Dive Brief by Patrick Cooley. The Brattle Group study for Google “compared the cost and reliability of generating 400 MW of power through a VPP consisting of smart thermostats, EV chargers, smart water heaters and behind-the-meter batteries with the cost and reliability of generating the same amount of electricity through a natural gas peaker or a transmission-connected utility-scale battery.” 

Minnesota highway initiative goes national to advance co-located energy, communications buildout 5/5/23 Utility Dive Brief by Robert Walton. The Next-Gen Highways Initiative plan solves two problems: expediting transmission expansion and supplying power to highway EV charging stations. 

Massachusetts energy agency calls for 3,600 MW of offshore wind proposals in state’s largest RFP to date 5/3/23 Utility Dive Brief by Emma Penrod. MA DOER filed on 5/2 for DPU approval a draft RFP seeking 3,600 MW of offshore wind power, which could supply 25% of the state’s energy demand. “[T]he filing has raised questions about additionality and whether some of the 3,600 MW will go to companies looking to re-bid existing projects they say are no longer financially viable.” 

Environmentalists, state consumer officials challenge ISO-NE’s proposed winter fuel storage costs 5/1/23 Utility Dive Brief by Stephen Singer. ISO-NE has proposed to FERC an expanded Inventoried Energy Program (IEP) on top of other market vehicles to improve winter reliability. Sierra Club, Union of Concerned Scientists, and Conservation Law Foundation said ISO-NE’s rate request “shows the risks to consumers of a system that relies on imports of a volatile commodity fuel for electricity generation.” Consumer advocates from MA, NH, CT, ME, and NH protested ISO-NE’s application, saying a redesign of the IEP could result in a windfall to oil resources.

Span’s Gateway for the Grid 4/28/23 blog post by Climate Tech VC, an in-depth interview with Span founder and CEO Arch Rao about Span’s smart electrical panel. The panel is ahead of and ready for integration into electric distribution utilities’ advanced metering infrastructure and demand response programs and ISO New England data connectivity, and Rao expresses a vision as to how the future might play out. 

Rep. Casten, ex-FERC chairs eye DERs, more power sector competition to achieve net zero goals 4/27/23 Utility Dive Brief by Diana DiGangi. A panel of one US Rep and two former FERC chairs cited a need for more competition and innovation and less suppression of competition by political actors and monopoly utilities.

Peregrine Energy Solutions, Ascend Analytics plan auction for nearly 900 MW of energy storage 4/27/23 Utility Dive Brief by Patrick Cooley. The companies plan to build and sell six battery projects in Oklahoma, Texas, Wisconsin and Virginia, in the ERCOT, PJM, MISO and SPP power grids, i.e. none of this instantly dispatchable storage will be in ISO-NE territory.