ISO-NE is proposing a merger of two of its stakeholder working groups to align with rapidly changing energy technology.
The grid operator has put forward a plan to merge the Demand Resources Working Group (DRWG) and Variable Resource Working Group (VRWG), created to help inform the formal NEPOOL stakeholder process, into the Emerging Technologies Working Group.
According to ISO-NE spokesperson Matt Kakley, the goal is to provide a “single working group forum for any emerging technology,” including inverter-based resources, distributed energy resources or other new technologies that might enter the picture.
“Rather than starting and stopping different working groups for specific resources, having one standing group maintains a consistent structure for nascent resources as their needs arise and naturally phases out focus on resources that are more established in the marketplace,” Kakley wrote in an email to RTO Insider.
He pointed in particular to storage as a “rapidly proliferating resource” that needs a forum to discuss grid integration and market participation issues.
ISO-NE has been introducing the idea in recent NEPOOL meetings and put forward a draft charter for the new ETWG at this week’s Markets Committee meeting.
The group would report to each of the Markets, Reliability and Transmission committees and would have a chair appointed by ISO-NE and a vice chair selected by NEPOOL participants.
The charter would define emerging technologies as “any technology that may require distinct technical discussions to help facilitate their grid integration and market participation, such as inverter-based resources or distributed energy resources that are not materially immersed or integrated into the wholesale power markets or operating in the bulk power system.”