ENTSO-E published a paper October 21st, 2016,  regarding its views on energy storage and storage services. The position paper states that there is a clear need for storage as the energy market, specifically as electricity undergoes its current transition. Notably, storage provides more flexibility to the system. ENTSO-E agrees with the European Commission’s view that storage is neither demand or generation-specific.

ENTSO-E has developed generic principles to be used for guiding the future investment framework for storage. They are as follow:

• There is a need for a European legal and regulatory framework regarding general principles for storage;
• Storage should compete on a level playing field with other technologies, and the tariff structures should ensure neutrality of storage;
• Storage devices should not be restricted to a single service, as this would not be economically efficient
• The TSOs should have access to data for central and distributed storage facilities for system security for all timeframes

(ENTSO-E, Position Paper Oct. 2016, p. 3)

These rules reflect the priorities of TSO’s at this time. Storage is primarily viewed as one of many tools available in providing flexibility to the system. Storage is used as a tool to optimise the integration of renewables into the energy market. The governing principle used throughout the paper that TSO’s and ENTSO-E are neutral market facilitators. There is equal recognition of the fact that renewables are a growing challenge that TSOs need to adapt to. For this reason, ENTSO-E envisions TSOs as being able to facilitate by establishing market and technical requirements for the new system service procurements.

Photo credit to ENTSO-E