First standard for energy storage systems now under development

The International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) and the National Electrical Manufacturers Association (NEMA) have started work to draft the first international and U.S. standards for measuring and reporting energy storage system performance.

Basing their work on a protocol developed by a working group at the U.S. DOE’s Pacific Northwest National Laboratory and Sandia Laboratories, NEMA and IEC hope to speed up the process.

The protocol evaluates three energy storage uses — peak-shaving, frequency regulation and islanded microgrids. The next revision of the protocol will add three more uses for energy storage, evaluating their use in photovoltaic smoothing, renewable firming/load-following and volt/VAR control. More metrics for existing applications will also be added at the request of utilities who are considering using energy storage systems.