Remaking Power Markets For New Energy

U.S. Electricity Markets Aren't Designed To Handle 100% Clean Energy. Here's How To Fix That.

Silvio Marcacci, July 1, 2019 (Forbes)

“Wholesale electricity markets, which serve two-thirds of the United States, are at an evolutionary point as fading economics push coal and nuclear offline while state-level clean energy targets and fast-falling renewable energy prices push clean energy onto the grid…But these seven U.S. wholesale electricity markets were designed around fossil fuels, and without reforms, they will become increasingly ill equipped to handle the influx of renewable energy and flexible distributed energy resources (like battery storage)…Markets were originally designed to incorporate some demand-side flexibility in addition to their primary function of managing supply-side generation…

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…[R]egulatory, economic, and technological barriers have largely precluded demand resources like batteries and smart thermostats from participating in wholesale electricity markets…With limited participation from demand resources, the wholesale market has functioned primarily with grid operators dispatching large central station plants to meet unalterable demand…[With high penetrations of variable renewables, rules, products, and software for short- and long-term markets must allow shaping of] customer-side flexibility…Smart thermostats, water heaters, and the “internet of things” can turn electricity demand into a grid resource to soak up large amounts of variable renewables…” click here for more

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