ScottMadden, Inc., one of North America’s leading energy consulting firms, will soon join industry leaders as a sponsor and presenter at Infocast’s Storage Week being held February 27–March 1 in San Francisco, CA. This event provides an opportunity to hear from the senior executives and active financiers at the forefront of deploying behind-the-meter and grid-connected energy storage systems as they explore the road to bankable projects.
The past year has seen substantial advances in the regulatory treatment of storage. What best practices are emerging regarding storage in IRPs, procurements, valuation of services and establishing multiple revenue streams? The panel, “Improving State Regulatory Policies to Reap the Benefits of Storage,” will focus on how leading regulators are establishing a level playing field for the consideration and valuation of storage. Kevin Hernandez, director at ScottMadden, will serve as the moderator.
“Regulators, in addition to utilities and other stakeholders, have come to understand the importance of energy storage in meeting many of their renewable portfolio standards and other policy goals,” explains Mr. Hernandez. “The first step in allowing storage to fulfill its potential is to address unintentional regulatory barriers, but what’s really exciting is the variety of ways regulators are incenting and developing new markets for energy storage at the state level.”
Additionally, Mr. Hernandez will moderate a panel focused on determining the locational value of storage and when to deploy non-wires alternatives. How do utilities best determine where and when to site storage as an alternative to traditional transmission and distribution technologies? How is storage being incorporated in IRPs and other planning processes? How are they determining values? This session will address these key questions and more.
Lastly, Scott Roulston, senior associate at ScottMadden, will serve as moderator for a panel geared toward longer-duration storage technologies. Lithium ion batteries have gotten the bulk of deployment in projects, but they have acknowledged weaknesses and limitations, including duration, need for thermal management, and degradation under excessive cycling. This panel will examine the maturation of non-lithium battery and other technologies: their costs, performance characteristics, deployments, and applicability.
“The future sweet spot for storage technologies will be in flexible, four-plus hour duration applications. This is where alternative technologies to lithium ion such as flow batteries may gain a foothold in more mature storage markets that have effective measures for lifetime costs,” says Mr. Roulston.
For more information about the continued storage market expansion for utilities and financiers, or to request summaries from our panel sessions, please contact us.
About ScottMadden’s Clean Tech & Sustainability Practice
Leveraging our energy expertise, the ScottMadden Clean Tech & Sustainability practice helps our clients effectively navigate through the quickly changing energy landscape. We specialize in assisting our clients with sustainable energy strategies and making smart portfolio choices. We work with our clients to understand and effectively utilize cleaner, renewable sources of energy, such as wind, solar, bioenergy, and nuclear. Our experienced team of energy practitioners understands the roles of energy efficiency, demand response, and storage as part of an integrated strategy. We also assist clients with sustainability, bringing an understanding of energy-unique concerns.
About ScottMadden’s Grid Transformation Practice
For more than 30 years, ScottMadden has helped our clients transform the way they operate, plan, and maintain the grid and interact with their customers. The Grid Transformation practice focuses on helping clients adapt to the myriad changes driven by the increasing penetration of distributed energy resources, such as distributed generation, storage, demand response, and microgrids. We help our clients choose the path that meets their reliability, customer, and regulatory goals, and then we help them implement it.
About ScottMadden, Inc.
ScottMadden is the management consulting firm that does what it takes to get it done right. Our practice areas include Energy, Clean Tech & Sustainability, Corporate & Shared Services, Grid Transformation, and Rates, Regulation, & Planning. We deliver a broad array of consulting services ranging from strategic planning through implementation across many industries, business units, and functions. To learn more, visit www.scottmadden.com | Twitter | Facebook | LinkedIn
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Media contact:
Mary Tew
919-714-7628