“Highview has invested considerable time and effort vetting potential engineering, procurement, and construction management (EPCM) partners and we could not be more thrilled to be working with a firm of SNC-Lavalin’s caliber,” said Highview Power CEO Gareth Brett. “They have an impressive track record of utility-scale energy project deployments and we’re very confident in their ability to deliver sustainable, reliable, low cost LAES solutions that will have an expected operational lifespan of 30 to 40 years.”

Highview and SNC-Lavalin will be focused on developing and executing LAES projects in the United States and Canada that satisfy long duration energy storage requirements for utilities, independent power producers and other energy companies. The partners will mutually provide comprehensive project development services including: all engineering, estimating, modeling, procurement, project management, construction, commissioning, and ongoing operations and maintenance (O&M).

“Long duration energy storage such as Highview’s LAES is one of the key technologies that will enable our utility and large industrial facility clients to maximize the value of their renewable energy investments through increased levels of integration with the grid,” said Marie-Claude Dumas, president, Clean Power at SNC-Lavalin. “We look forward to working together by applying our engineering, construction management and project financing expertise to successfully deploy liquid air energy storage systems across North America.”

Highview Power’s proprietary LAES technology is based on the principle of air liquefaction, which enables the easy storage of gases in cryogenic liquid form. The process involves a 700-fold expansion in volume from liquid back to gas, which releases the stored energy, powering turbines and generating electricity. This enables Highview’s system to store energy in increments measured in days rather than hours, at half the cost of lithium-ion batteries, and while releasing zero emissions in the process. It utilizes long-proven technology with a system lifespan of over 30 years.

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“The full actions taken this morning by the FERC represent the culmination of a concentrated and holistic review of the framework needed to support participation of vital electric storage technologies in the wholesale markets,” said Kelly Speakes-Backman, CEO of the Energy Storage Association.  “Since the rulemaking was initiated in November 2016, the Energy Storage Association, driven by the tireless efforts of its vice president of policy, Jason Burwen, has advocated for establishing transparent, standardized RTO and ISO policies regarding the participation and integration of electric storage. Electric storage technologies already fulfill crucial functions in the bulk power system to provide reliable power and a more resilient grid.  With this morning’s unequivocal action, the FERC signaled both a recognition of the value provided by storage today, and more importantly, a clear vision of the role electric storage can play, given a clear pathway to wholesale market participation. ESA looks forward to working collaboratively with other stakeholders to implement the comprehensive rules promulgated by the FERC today.”

In a November 2016 Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NOPR), the Commission noted that market rules designed for traditional generation resources can create barriers to entry for emerging technologies such as electric storage resources. Today’s final rule helps remove these barriers by requiring each regional grid operator to revise its tariff to establish a participation model for electric storage resources that consist of market rules that properly recognize the physical and operational characteristics of electric storage resources.

The participation model must ensure that a resource using the model is eligible to provide all capacity, energy and ancillary services that it is technically capable of providing, can be dispatched, and can set the wholesale market clearing price as both a seller and buyer consistent with existing market rules. The model also must account for the physical and operational characteristics of electric storage resources through bidding parameters or other means, and it must set a minimum size requirement that does not exceed 100 kilowatts. The final rule also requires that the sale of electric energy from the wholesale electricity market to an electric storage resource that the resource then resells back to those markets must be at the wholesale locational marginal price.

The NOPR also proposed reforms related to distributed energy resource aggregations. While the Commission continues to believe that removing unnecessary barriers to market participation by these resources is important, today’s rule concludes that more information is needed with respect to those proposed reforms. In light of that, the Commission today also issued a Notice of Technical Conference (RM18-9-000), that identifies questions to help gather additional information to determine what action to take on the distributed energy resource aggregation reforms proposed in the NOPR. Commission staff also will use the technical conference as an opportunity to discuss other technical considerations for the bulk power system related to distributed energy resources.

Today’s final rule takes effect 90 days after publication in the Federal Register. Compliance filings by the RTOs and ISOs are due 270 days after the effective date, with an additional 365 days to implement the tariff revisions.

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According to its report, U.S. Residential Battery Storage Playbook 2017, the U.S. residential storage market is currently large and thriving, principally driven by off-grid applications. The opportunity will unfold unevenly across applications and markets over time, especially as the currently nascent grid-tied market begins to develop.

This is similar to grid-tied solar projects overtaking the off-grid solar market.

GTM Research estimates that in 2016, over 4,400 residential battery systems were deployed across the U.S. It reports that 86% were off-grid or grid-independent backup. But by the end of this year, GTM expects grid-connected deployments will make up 57% of annual deployments, and 99% by 2022, as annual off-grid and grid-independent backup deployments remain relatively flat.

In addition to off-grid installations, the strongest applications today are time-of- use and self-consumption in Hawaii and backup power for a niche set of customers in PJM territory and the Northeast. However, the market opportunity will evolve to potentially include more prevalent TOU applications in California, New York, Massachusetts and Arizona, a more robust backup market in PJM and the Northeast, and grid services markets in California, New York and Texas.

GTM sees homeowners adding storage for backup power or financial savings, and utilities looking to mitigate the effects of high solar penetration on the grid driving the storage market.  Local regulations, policies and incentives are also contributing to or inhibiting growth.

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