Interim Market Rules and Manuals for Energy Storage Now Posted and in Effect
March 4, 2021
Over the past few years, the IESO has sought to understand and eliminate some of the barriers to the participation of electricity storage resources in Ontario’s wholesale markets. By engaging with the storage community and other affected stakeholders through the Storage Design Project (SDP), the IESO and its partners worked to establish interim rules to guide the operation of storage resources in the current market environment and develop a long-term vision for how they will participate in the future, once the IESO has invested in the tool upgrades required to fully integrate storage resources.
While not a permanent solution, the interim design represents a significant step forward and provides greater transparency for storage operators and investors. For the first time, the requirements for electricity storage facilities at every stage of market participation – from registration to operations and settlements – are codified in the IESO market rules. These rules came into effect on January 18, 2021 while the associated manuals, operating guide and other documentation were published on February 26, 2021. They apply to all energy storage facilities that are registered to participate in the markets, including facilities that are embedded within a distribution system.
The interim market rules and manuals are now available on the Market Rules and Manuals Library and Technical Interface pages. The operating guide can be found on the Marketplace Training webpage.