Upcoming consultation papers on battery energy storage systems and hybrids

The Electricity Authority Te Mana Hiko will soon be seeking feedback on a package of papers to support the role battery energy storage systems (BESSs) and hybrids (BESS co-located with, and connected to, electricity generation) play in New Zealand's power system.

We intend to release two consultation papers in May covering the following aspects of our BESS/hybrid-related work programme:

• a proposed Code amendment to improve wholesale market arrangements for utility-scale batteries following on from our issues and options paper late last year
• an issues and options paper on:
  • Part 13 trading arrangements for hybrid plants
  • Part 8 common quality requirements for hybrid plants and idle BESS

We are releasing these papers as a package to give submitters the opportunity to comment on the projects together and to give better visibility of the BESS and hybrid work we are progressing. More detail on this work is in our regulatory roadmap for BESS.

This advance notice is to assist with submitters' planning.

We expect the papers to be released in May and for the consultation to be open for 6 weeks.

Since our market arrangements for BESS issues and options paper we have been working with stakeholders to better understand their submissions and operational characteristics of BESS.

We are also working with participants and the System Operator to address the challenges that arise at present when BESSs are dispatched to generate and consume at the same time.