Our podcast guests come from different electric industry, public sector and NGO vantage points — but each one will provide insight into a common theme: How battery and storage technologies are fostering a revolutionary shift in power business operations and economics.

We hope to bring our listeners insight into this metamorphosis from the inside-out.

As early as 1999, the firm represented an affiliate generation technology company with regulatory and structuring issues associated with distributed generation (DG) facilities at the San Diego Naval Yard. This project entailed an early version of a microgrid adopted on the very same site in 2018.

The firm represented competitive suppliers in California’s first Wholesale Distribution Access Tariff (WDAT) proceeding the tariff that ultimately gave rise to the proliferation of DERs, including storage. Later, in 2010, the firm supported development of Ice Energy’s behind-the-meter Ice Bear storage system. Today the company is one of the most successful storage businesses in the U.S.

In 2014, the firm provided cutting-edge tax advice to a utility client regarding availability of the ITC credit for a solar facility that also would include a storage system.

As battery technology and demand-side management began to accelerate, the firm worked with transmission-only clients to examine whether this new technology could provide support as a non-generation resource, i.e., for vars, or for black-start, or as a substitute for capacitor banks. The firm counseled ATC LLC, a transmission-only company, regarding operation, ownership and investment in battery storage assets.

Beginning in 2015, the firm counseled and represented an early-mover in the grid-scale battery storage space. This Midwest integrated utility installed a 20 MW (flexible 40 MW) lithium-ion battery storage array in a major urban load center. The representation tackled issues of first impression regarding the use of MISO’s Generator Interconnection Agreement (GIA) (see 155 FERC ¶ 61,211 (2016). Later, when FERC took up these issues on a generic basis, the firm assisted clients in preparing comments on FERC Order No. 842, its Final Rule on amendments to the pro forma GIA and the provision of Primary Frequency Response. FERC’s Final Rule required specific accommodations for electric storage resources. (see 162 FERC ¶ 61,128 P 176 et seq. (2018).

The firm also represented this utility on a landmark complaint before FERC regarding the participation of storage resources within the MISO markets. While FERC directed changes to MISO’s market rules to accommodate the participation of storage resources in MISO’s markets (158 FERC ¶ 61,107 (2017) based on specific findings with respect to the MISO tariff and market rules, this complaint also laid the groundwork for FERC’s Order No. 841, the Final Rule on Electric Storage Participation in Markets Operated by Regional Transmission Organizations and Independent System Operators, 162 FERC ¶ 61,127 (2018). Through this representation, the firm gained significant experience and expertise in the intersection of business, market, engineering and regulatory issues associated with grid-scale battery resources.

The combination of experience garnered through the representation of the transmission-only entities and an integrated utility has allowed the firm’s energy practice to gain a unique perspective on the role grid-scale batteries can play with respect to the provision of ancillary services, energy, capacity and transmission services, and how those services can all play a role in the value stack.

As battery storage began to gain market penetration as a component of distribution networks, Troutman Sanders attorneys also represented solar-plus-storage developers and electric vehicle manufacturers in various state proceedings that developed storage incentives and mandates.

In 2019, our attorneys counseled clients navigating the flurry of state-level activity, including the initiatives surrounding New York’s implementation of its sweeping Reforming the Energy Vision (REV), Massachusetts’ rollout of the Solar Massachusetts Renewable Target (SMART), and the District of Columbia’s interest in utilizing microgrids with storage assets as a resiliency grid measure.

Our attorneys have played an integral part in advising clients on the legal frameworks that could enable new grid structures, including ownership and customer energy delivery models. The firm represents WGL Energy Services, Inc./WGL Energy Systems, Inc., regarding a proposed microgrid and real estate development at the Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, D.C.

In the NY REV context, our attorneys represent energy storage developers seeking to fulfill Con Edison’s large-scale storage mandate and the related developer operational regulatory requirements to participate as a capacity resource within the New York Independent System Operator.