Post: CAISO updates to battery maintenance and operation standards

CAISO updates to battery maintenance and operation standards

The California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) has voted to approve a resolution that would update the standards for the maintenance and operation of electric generating assets and explicitly applying those standards to battery energy storage systems.

The resolution, published on March 13, modifies General Order (GO) 167 (Order), which establishes the electric generating facility standards for safe and reliable service as well as methods of enforcement, audits, inspections, and incident investigations in California. The Resolution updates generating asset operation and maintenance standards and applies those standards to battery storage facilities, as required under Senate Bill (SB) 1383, increases oversight of emergency response action plans for battery storage facilities, as required under SB38, and increases reporting requirements.

Under the existing Order, battery storage owners were not required to report safety incidents such as injuries, fatalities, thermal runaways, fires, or other system failures to the CPUC, nor were facilities subject to the Order’s maintenance and operation standards.

The resolution:

• would apply generating asset (GA) standards (and exceptions) to all owners of battery storage, newly defined as “commercially available technology that is capable of absorbing energy, storing it for a period of time, and thereafter dispatching the energy”
• updates the maintenance, operation, and logbook standards for GAs and applies these standards to battery storage. GA and battery storage owners will be required to verify their logbooks and certify they have adopted and implemented maintenance and operation plans to CPUC.
• means GA and battery storage owners will be required to prepare and submit Emergency Response and Emergency Action Plans in coordination with local authorities
• requires battery storage and GA owners to report safety-related incidents to the CPUC within 24 hours of occurrence and submit a written report of the incident within five business days.
• Requires battery storage owners will be required to report outages to CAISO and to respond to information requests and directives, including submitting outage reports under the ESRB Power Plant Outage Reporting requirements.