On March 22, 2021, the FERC announced that it took broad steps to eliminate obstacles that hinder newer technologies, including energy storage, and distributed energy resources (DER) from being involved in wholesale markets. The additional measures guarantee that demand response resources can be merged with other forms of DERs to promote grid dependability, benefit consumers, and enhance competition.
Extending the demand response “opt-out” prohibits grid operators from accepting offers from aggregated demand response where state regulators disallow such participation. Further, the FERC expresses that doing so would:
- impede the objectives of Order No. 2222
- lessen the diversity of aggregated DERs
- prevent the aggregated DER model from reaching its full potential
The actions taken by the agency came in an order on rehearing of Order No. 2222. This order authorizes DERs to participate side by side with traditional resources in the regional organized wholesale markets by allowing them to aggregate to meet minimum size and performance requirements that they might not meet individually.
The revisions become effective 60 days following publication in the Federal Register.
FERC also released a Notice of Inquiry regarding the possible implications of eliminating states’ ability to prevent demand response resources from participating in organized wholesale markets. Interested parties are invited to submit comments or questions about the following matters: 1) whether the circumstances relevant to this demand response opt-out have changed since the opt-out was established in Order Nos. 719 and 719-A; and 2) the potential benefits or burdens of removing it. Comments are due 90 days after publication in the Federal Register, and reply comments are due 30 days after that.
For more information, contact Craig Cano by phone: (202) 522-8680 or via email: mediadl@ferc.gov.
Sources:
FERC Addresses Demand Response Opt-Out for Certain DER Aggregations (ferc.gov)
Notice of Inquiry (ferc.gov)
