Dive Brief:
- The New York Battery and Energy Storage Technology Consortium (NY-BEST) on Friday submitted comments criticizing state regulators' July 1 unit-by-unit peaker study, saying it underestimated how many peakers could be replaced by battery storage.
- The Department of Public Service's study identified at least 275 MW of peaking units, or about 6% of the total rated capacity of New York's peaking fleet, as potential candidates for replacement with six‐hour energy storage. This number increases to over 500 MW when using eight-hour duration storage.
- NY-BEST said the study uses extreme case analysis and a more comprehensive study is needed to accurately depict energy storage's potential. "There's a lot of momentum right now for the replacement of large-scale assets on the grid with storage, and that's why these studies are so important," Bill Acker, executive director of NY-BEST, told Utility Dive.
Dive Insight:
While the study made clear that it did not consider any system changes after 2013 that may impact how conventional peaking units and energy storage resources operate in the future, Acker hopes further analysis will more accurately show the potential benefits of energy storage for New York.
"There are a lot of important reasons to do a more holistic look at the replacement of peaker plants in New York State with energy storage, and do those in ways that address some of the concerns that we outlined in the filing," he said.
NY-BEST, a nonprofit trade association representing 175 member organizations, identified three major concerns with the methodology of the peaker study, according to its filing:
- The study ignores the temporal characteristics of traditional peakers that are more restrictive and less flexible than energy storage resources, and assumes that peaker operation is solely determined by system reliability needs;
- It is examining snapshots of individual units in isolation without a system model, or taking into account other operational factors at a given time, can create misleading results;
- And load shapes and peaking needs will change dramatically as renewable energy increases, making the Study’s use of 2013 data inappropriate to analyze future New York peaking needs.
Acker said that the study had its merit in showing that there is an opportunity for energy storage to replace traditional peaker plants, even under 2013's conservative load profile assumption.
The study also took into account Democratic Gov. Andrew Cuomo's proposal to lower thresholds for nitrogen oxide emissions from simple cycle and regenerative combustion turbines and the role energy storage could play in mitigating emissions, he added.
"We are at a point where energy storage can replace peakers in many, many situations. We want make sure that we do get this right, so that we're able to really take advantage of the benefits of the storage technology," Acker said.
NY-BEST is calling on state regulators to conduct additional studies that take a more holistic planning approach and incorporate New York renewable energy goals of 70% renewables by 2030 and 100% carbon-free emissions by 2040.
The New York Public Service Commission in December set an energy storage goal of 3,000 MW by 2030 with an interim goal of 1,500 MW by 2025.