A new “joint principles” document has been created by the Electricity Storage Association (ESA) and the American Wind Energy Association (AWEA) to help level the playing field for clean energy technologies. Both organizations advocate for public policies that will remove barriers and increase market access for emerging clean energy technologies such as wind. In the current climate, it has been challenging for clean technologies to compete with established energy sources. Another challenge? Energy storage.

“ESA feels strongly about advocating for the use of energy storage to modernize the power grid,” said Brad Roberts, Executive Director of ESA. “Our policymakers need to understand the potential for these resources to improve our electric grid reliability, while creating jobs and stimulating American innovation and manufacturing.  While wind energy makes our grid cleaner, energy storage makes our grid more flexible and reliable.”

The agreed principles include the value of energy storage across the utility industry. The wind doesn’t always blow and the sun doesn’t always shine, so how do you capture and store the energy created by wind and sun for later use? The organizations want more focus on energy storage and potential solutions to strategically store energy on wind farms.

Specific policies supported by ESA and AWEA include:

• • Wholesale energy markets and ancillary services markets should be created and expanded, and barriers to entry into those markets eliminated.
• • Market and operating rules should be based around the type of service needed, and any technology that is able to reliably provide a needed service should be able to provide it. In many cases, previously bundled services should be disaggregated
• • Low cost grid operating reforms that will create more competition and make the grid operate more efficiently, such as greater balancing are coordination and faster generator dispatch intervals, should be implemented as soon as possible.

“Large amounts of wind energy are being reliably and cost-effectively integrated onto the power system today,” said Denise Bode, CEO of AWEA. “Energy storage can be a valuable resource for the power system in maximizing the efficient use of this resource, and add flexibility for electric utilities. We look forward to working closely with ESA on regulatory policy that will enable these growing industries to fully benefit both consumers and the economy of the U.S.”