From ESS News
In just over six months, ERCOT will roll out a market reform that’s poised to dramatically reshape battery storage economics in Texas.
The Real-Time Co-optimization plus Batteries (RTC+B) initiative, which is set to take effect in early December, will allow the market to optimize ancillary services and energy simultaneously in real-time. This will reduce overall costs and make it easier to dispatch energy resources more efficiently. It could also open up new value streams for storage assets.
So, what’s different? Under RTC+B, batteries will be recognized not just as generation or load, but as flexible assets.
“In the current market, your battery can either be charging or discharging,” explained Jay Jayasuriya, a principal at Sendero Consulting who advises several utilities and developers preparing for RTC+B. He told ESS News that charging batteries function as a load on the grid and discharging batteries are classified as a generation asset. But, he added, under this structure, “you can only discharge 50% because otherwise you’d change your profile.”
Currently, ERCOT procures ancillary services only in the Day-Ahead Market and batteries have a limited ability to switch dynamically or participate fully in both energy and ancillary service markets.
Jayasuriya noted that this rigidity has historically led to missed revenue opportunities or penalties when batteries couldn’t deliver their expected capacity due to scheduling mismatches or technical constraints.
“If you bid too much into the market, you got penalized,” he said. “But, if you can’t commit, you also get penalized.”
Please read the full article on our ESS News website…
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