Texas might be big, but the battery landscape is getting crowded. Some say that might not be such a bad thing. (ESS News)
“Markets like California and Texas are looking at the future of ancillary service saturation from battery storage projects,” IPP Fullmark Energy CEO Chris McKissack said. And that’s not as bad as it might sound: “It’s actually demonstrating how storage is contributing to the grid and what that means is that ratepayers are paying less for grid services.”
Bigger picture: Particularly in ERCOT’s merchant market, where batteries can respond to price volatility driven by renewables, storage’s role in flattening rates and improving reliability could just be getting started.