The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission last week clarified its 2013 rule opening the ancillary services markets to more competition from electric storage.
Order 784 was designed to improve competition and transparency in ancillary services markets at a time when the growth of wind power and other intermittent sources is increasing the need for imbalance services. The rule requires PJM and other transmission providers to consider speed and accuracy in acquiring regulation resources, removes obstacles to selling such services at market-based rates, and creates new accounting categories for tracking investments in electric storage. (See FERC Rule Boosts Storage, Renewables.)
The new ruling (Order 784-A) clarifies that:
- Any intra-hour transmission scheduling practice will meet Order 784’s requirements regarding sales of energy and generator imbalance services;
- The section 205 filing requirement for sales of ancillary services made pursuant to a competitive solicitation applies only to sales not otherwise authorized in Order 784;
- Order 784 is not intended to permit transmission providers to limit the quantity or percentage of total reserve obligations of regulation and frequency response service a customer may self-supply;
- Historical one-minute and 10-minute ACE data must be posted to OASIS by public utility transmission providers within 30 days;
- Account 555.1, Power Purchased for Storage Operations, is intended to include all costs of power purchased for energy storage operations regardless of the classification of the associated energy storage device used in operations; and
- The new accounting and reporting requirements must be implemented in the 2013 forms due to be filed April 18, 2014.
Separately, the commission scheduled a staff workshop April 22 at FERC headquarters on third-party provision of reactive supply, voltage control, regulation and frequency response services. Those wishing to provide input can complete a speaker nomination form. FERC encouraged those wanting to attend to register in advance.
