Case Study: Tesla, Olivine, and Center for Sustainable Energy

The Center for Sustainable Energy, along with project partners Tesla and Olivine, demonstrated the ability to bid five behind-the-meter (BTM) energy storage systems into the California Independent System Operator (CAISO) wholesale energy and ancillary service markets.

This opens opportunities for increasing the value of commercial-scale BTM energy storage battery installations by generating revenue through participating in wholesale price markets and supporting distribution system reliability. Specifically, the batteries participated in the day-ahead energy market, the real-time energy market and the spinning reserves segment of the ancillary services market and simulated the provision of frequency regulation.

The research was supported by a grant from the California Energy Commission’s Electric Program Investment Charge (EPIC) program.

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A detailed report on the project is included in the Electric Power Research Institute’s publication Utility DERMS Demonstrations & Pilots: A Collection of 14 Case Studies with Lessons Learned (12/2/20). The EPRI full report costs $25,000, but the CSE, Tesla, Olivine portion is available here for free.