CESA Grows Western Energy Storage Markets, Applies California’s Storage Growth Success
By Alex Morris, Executive Director
May 25, 2022
The western U.S. may be a ground zero in the fight against climate change, suffering what one major publication called “climate hell.” The region from the Rocky Mountains and the Pacific shores is grappling with increasingly extreme weather and persistent mega-drought from deadly and geographically large heat waves and destructive wildfires, to frightening water shortages and mandatory water restrictions. At the same time, population in the West continues to grow. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, 5 of the top 10 states experiencing the largest population growth by percentage from 2020-2021 are in the West: Arizona, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, and Utah.
Utility Integrated Resource Plans Create Energy Storage Opportunities
Many of these states have utility Integrated Resource Plans (IRPs) and/or state policies for higher penetrations of renewables. This creates the very ready and ripe situation for storage market development. As climate change sets in, support for climate change abatement and clean energy policies persists and strengthens while the costs of inaction become clearer. Wholesale electric system prices continue to evolve based on new and incoming renewables, challenging the economics of older typically fossil plants and accelerating their retirement. Meanwhile, the CAISO’s expansion of its Energy Imbalance Market (EIM) creates a participation route for energy storage to compete in wholesale markets, clarifying monetization paths for operating energy storage.
All of these factors create conditions for dramatic and rapid expansion of energy storage solutions, which can decarbonize the grid, provide reliability, energy and grid services when and where needed most, as well as help customers, reduce costs, abate wildfire risks, and more.
Introducing the Western Energy Storage Taskforce
CESA’s new Western Energy Storage Taskforce (WEST) aims to ensure that energy storage markets are accelerated in the west. More specifically, WEST will ensure that storage in all its forms is properly represented in utility and state grid planning and procurement venues across Western markets. As the voice of energy storage in California, highly steeped in technical and regulatory energy storage advocacy processes, strategies, and messaging, CESA has the experience and skill sets to tackle this work. In other words, CESA’s techno-regulatory expertise with utility and public-utility commission regulations is perfect for accelerating energy storage markets.
As each utility, state or commission approaches its resource planning efforts, a strong, technical, and credible voice can ensure energy storage is properly considered in all resource planning. By sharing about and ensuring energy storage considerations in resource planning across the west, we are confident more rapid storage market development and critical market intelligence made available to members is the future.
Western State Coverage
In particular, WEST will focus on resource modeling, planning, and procurement timelines by utilities with active IRPs located in states with storage markets CESA believes are primed for expansion: Arizona, Colorado, New Mexico, Oregon, Utah, and Washington State. We also want to work on the compelling resource adequacy programs being spooled up in the northwest by the Western Power Pool. WEST builds on the increasingly interconnected CAISO EIM for western states which CAISO continues to tune and expand. To date, EIM has now delivered more than $2 billion in savings, including nearly $740 million last year alone.
As WEST launches in June, join us in our efforts to shape and scale western storage markets. Exclusive to CESA members, WEST supporters will receive a service package that includes monthly working group meetings with planning and procurement action updates, the ability to shape CESA policy positions in WEST regions, summary emails, and draft comment outlines and filings.