NRECA, through the Achieving Cooperative Community Equitable Solar Sources (ACCESS) solar project, is working with multiple electric co-ops to research how to make solar energy affordable for communities with fewer financial resources and extend the benefits of solar development to low-and moderate-income (LMI) consumers.
Battery Energy Storage Systems (BESS) can be employed to provide various ancillary services to the co-op distribution grids that, if properly monetized, could capture additional benefits for the co-ops from the deployed or soon to be deployed PV installations.
Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) is studying the proposed co-op projects integrating BESS with PV to understand if and how the integrated PV/BESS assets can be utilized to achieve additional benefits. Through that effort, PNNL researchers identified an opportunity to tighten financial models by incorporating real-world measurements of individual battery performance instead of using manufacturer-provided design specifications.
This advisory provides PNNL-developed methodology for assessing and characterizing battery performance characteristics for inclusion in financial models.
