Members agreed Thursday to consider new rules to allow batteries, flywheels and other advanced storage technologies to bid in the capacity market.

The Market and Reliability Committee approved a problem statement and issue charge with only two no votes despite some wariness from some members.

The proposal was sponsored by Demansys Energy LLC, which aggregates commercial and industrial customers for participation in the regulation market.

Janette Kessler Dudley, vice president of business development and regulatory affairs, noted that PJM currently has no rules allowing batteries or other advanced storage resources to participate in the Reliability Pricing Model. “What my company is interested in is parity,” she said.

Steve Lieberman, of Old Dominion Electric Cooperative, said he was not convinced storage is compatible with other capacity resources.

He said the issue should receive a lower priority than those currently before the Capacity Senior Task Force. “We should proceed carefully as far as expectations go,” he said.

Members ultimately decided the move the issue from the CSTF to the Planning Committee.

Gloria Godson, of Pepco, said she supported the inquiry but that PJM shouldn’t approve new rules until it fully understands the technologies. She noted the amount of “retooling” the RTO has done to address problems with the integration of demand response.

Raghu Sudhakara, of Rockland Electric Co., noted that NYISO already allows four hour resources to participate in its capacity market. “There’s no reason PJM, being as sophisticated as it is, can’t accommodate new technologies,” he said.

PJM currently has about 56 MW of non-pump storage.

See Energy Storage Vies for Capacity Role; Energy Storage: Ready for its Close-Up?