Is ERCOT attempting to "eighty-six" batteries?
It was a white knuckle night in the ERCOT control room. On Thursday, August 17th, reserves on the ERCOT grid dropped below 3,000 megawatts — less than 4% of the total system demand at that point — and got close to the 2,300 megawatts that would require ERCOT to declare emergency conditions.
The same night, industrial-size batteries put 1,800 megawatts of power — more than double the previous record — onto the grid when reserves reached their lowest point. Without batteries, ERCOT probably would’ve declared an emergency that night. We were very close to the edge.
The same thing happened four times over the next week or so: storage put between 1,100 and 1,325 megawatts of power onto the grid between 7:15 - 8:30 p.m., right as reserves reached their nadir on August 20, 23, 24, 25, and 29 — all days when ERCOT issued conservation calls.
These hot summer nights show the vital role that storage should play on the grid, filling the gaps in those moments when demand threatens to overtake supply. The amount of storage on the grid has mushroomed in recent years — and much, much more is on the way.
So is ERCOT opposing its expansion in a key ancillary service market?