Punishment for Batteries while Gas Skates Free

Power grid operators need flexible and dispatchable resources, especially when grids are under extreme stress or emergency conditions. The worse the conditions, the greater the need for flexible resources. 

There’s no energy resource that’s more flexible or dispatchable than batteries. They can respond in sub-seconds and fulfill a variety of grid needs. 

So why on earth is ERCOT trying to slow down battery deployment?

Last month, the ERCOT Board unanimously approved a protocol revision request (ERCOT’s version of a rule change) requiring batteries to maintain a state of charge at all times. Batteries, of course, are meant to be depleted and recharged; ERCOT’s rule would force them to always have more juice, even in dangerous conditions — times when Texans desperately need it.

“ERCOT is trying to make batteries look like and act like coal plants,” Commissioner Glotfelty wrote in a memo that injected some common sense into the discussions of ERCOT’s protocol revision request (known as NPRR 1186). 

Commissioner Glotfelty suggested to ERCOT CEO Pablo Vegas back in August that the proposal would increase costs for consumers and create reliability problems; he suggested ERCOT to go “back to the drawing board” on the proposal and to “not pass it at the next Board meeting.” ERCOT ignored that advice — the politically appointed board unanimously passed a protocol revision that somewhat eased the heavy handed regulation of batteries but would still force batteries to hoard electricity when Texans need it. 

And so, three months later, the PUC was again left to express its displeasure with a regulation that would discourage investment in a dispatchable power source that Texas desperately needs…