2025 Agenda

The grid-scale energy storage landscape in the U.S. is shifting fast, and risk reduction is at the forefront of every project decision. From supply chain uncertainties to regulatory challenges and financial risks, navigating these complexities is critical to ensuring bankable, long-term success.

Join Trina Storage energy expert, Mike Watson, as he takes the stage to discuss key strategies for de-risking energy storage investments. This session will explore how to build resilience in supply chains, mitigate financial uncertainty, and adapt to market and policy shifts — ensuring a more secure, profitable future for energy storage projects.

Key Takeaways:

• Why bankability and supply chain stability matter now more than ever
• How Trina Storage is addressing tariff uncertainty
• How to avoid common risks in large-scale energy storage projects

Don’t miss this insightful session on navigating uncertainty and strengthening energy storage strategies in today’s evolving market.

VRFB technology is a safe and reliable option to provide long-duration energy storage greater than four hours to help ensure grid stability and facilitate increased utilization of renewables for businesses and consumers across the U.S. With proper maintenance, VRFBs can last more than 20 years without its electrolyte losing storage capacity. This longevity complements the lifespan of wind and solar installations. However, the upfront cost of VRFB systems poses a significant challenge to widespread adoption.

Vanadium electrolyte production is a key cost reduction target within the manufacturing scale-up challenge. The electrolyte is infinitely recyclable, and the battery offers a near-limitless cycle life. This component typically constitutes 40 percent to 60 percent of the bill of materials cost for VRFB systems. To address this hurdle, innovative business models, like vanadium electrolyte leasing, have emerged as promising solutions to accelerate commercialization. A cost-effective domestic supply chain for vanadium electrolyte will provide the opportunity for rapid adoption of VRFB technology, which has the potential to completely replace lithium in the utility arena in the next five years.

This presentation will outline the market demand for VRFB and how electrolyte leasing models are gaining popularity by creating a win-win proposition for both consumers and suppliers.

A year after our last discussion on market saturation, how will arbitrage values shift as more assets come online this year, and how will the June 89^th legislative session alter rules, procedures and economics for BESS?

• DRRs and RTC: what can the industry expect from ancillary services, is Texas still an energy only market?
• What are the evolving dynamics of the energy grid?
• Will Performance Capacity Mechanisms (PCM) reshape the market in relation to capacity contracts, and will this enhance the project economics of BESS?
• With a surge in data centers and an impending manufacturing boom, how does the forecast increase in load growth affect project assumptions?
• The potential for long-duration technologies in the ERCOT market

Is the industry leaving money on the table? A key consideration of BESS performance and real-time revenues lies in the calculation of the state of charge. Accuracy is the name of the game for those looking to predict asset revenue and avoid penalties.

• What are the key drivers of differences in reported SoC and usable energy?
• How does the SoC impact operations and market participation?
• Warranty, degradation, and insurance implications

Meet with investors and developers directly in this structured roundtable session. We will begin with quick-fire pitches from each investor on investment opportunities and partnerships they’re currently seeking. The audience will then split into smaller roundtable discussion groups where investors and developers can discuss business 1-2-1. Each round table will be hosted by an investor and developers will move around the room.

Registration is only available to developers and investors.

As utilities increasingly adopt energy storage solutions to enhance grid resilience and sustainability, ensuring the safety and cybersecurity of these systems becomes crucial. With rising geopolitical tensions, the focus on safeguarding Battery Energy Storage Systems (BESS) has intensified. Experts from EVLO Energy Storage will share their extensive experience in developing and deploying BESS for utilities and independent power producers. They will provide valuable insights into the latest best practices for maintaining safety and cybersecurity in BESS deployments. The discussion will cover comprehensive strategies, including robust physical safeguards; stringent cybersecurity protocols to prevent cyberattacks and data breaches, compliance with regulations and industry standards, and specialized training programs along with ongoing maintenance procedures to ensure the reliability and security of BESS installations.

Delve into the significant impact that system imbalance can have on power delivery and the overall reliability of BESS projects.

We will explore how Assured Balance™ technology from IHI Terrasun enhances the reliability of reported system capacity, minimizes balancing times, and maximizes the amount of reliably extractable power. Attendees will gain a comprehensive understanding of how balanced BESS systems can mitigate issues related to State of Charge (SOC) inaccuracies and improve the efficiency of power dispatch.

This session is essential for developers and operators looking to optimize their energy storage systems and ensure consistent, reliable power delivery. Don’t miss this opportunity to discover innovative solutions to common challenges in BESS operation.

With more than 2.6GWh of cumulative deployment in the US since 2020, CLOU will introduce its 5MWh AC containers integrated with string PCS, designed to provide optimal solution for developers and investor across the US markets. An integral part of CLOU’s advantage is CLOU’s in-situ active balancing, which operates autonomously during charging, discharging, or idle states. This innovation enables asset owners/operators to significantly reduce downtime and operational costs, boost revenue and profitability, and optimize optimizing battery lifespan and efficiency.

This session will appeal to developers, owners/operators, and investors looking to enhance ROI for energy storage systems by eliminating prolonged maintenance windows and maximizing asset utilization.

Hosted by Energy Storage Canada, join us to discuss the evolving energy storage market in Canada and the unique economics of energy storage projects.

• Comparative Economic Analysis: distinguishing factors, policies, and trends between Canada and the United States
• Provincial policy, requirements, and frameworks, including discussion on recent tender announcements such as the IESO energy storage procurement target of 1.8 GWs
• Provincial front-runners in energy storage deployment, recent deal structures, and active participants

PPAs and more, in this panel we will be keeping you up-to-date on the latest market trends for structuring offtake agreements.

• How can batteries provide the maximum value to an offtaker?
• What are the need-to-knows before entering an agreement?

Which market will ultimately win the hearts and minds of those looking to diversify into new regions? Vote for the winner in this interactive session.

Interact directly with representatives from regional ISOs and RTOs, Developers, and utilities, focusing on operability and dispatch issues, advanced storage modelling capabilities, market design and project bankability. We will begin with a scene-setting panel discussion, and delegates will then be able to join a market-specific discussion table to brainstorm problems around operability, lessons learned from existing deployments and products, modelling capacity and more.

If you are want to find out more about different jurisdictions and compensation for storage assets, this is the session for you.

Clarifying the implications of CAISO’s reforms on project timelines, risk management, and the overall feasibility of maintaining project pipelines in California’s increasingly competitive interconnection environment.

• Overview: what is the practical impact of CAISO’s newly approved interconnection reform on development pipeline, project viability, and interconnection costs?
• How will the new zonal cluster system (Deliverable vs. Merchant Zones) impact project interconnection timelines and costs, particularly for projects required to self-fund network upgrades?
• With the scoring criteria emphasizing commercial interest and viability, what are the specific benchmarks, and how do projects with utility or commercial offtake agreements stand in comparison to merchant or community-owned projects?

Last year’s OCED funding announcement has certainly given the industry a jumpstart, however, what specifics need to be taken into consideration as the program progresses and where might we see the future of LDES? With more regulators eyeing LDES technology procurement targets to scale novel technologies, this panel will determine the future impact of such decisions on the wider energy storage industry.

• The current value proposition and cost assumptions for LDES technologies
• What further efforts are needed in R&D to help more LDES technologies achieve commercialization regardless of funding in the future?
• What products and market mechanisms are available for LDES technologies in mature US markets?
• Capacity accreditation reform and the changing value of storage as a resource edge

Calculating the role of AI and software innovations in the modern BESS industry, focusing on effective integration with hardware, decision-making between in-house development and contractors, and the evolving standards and future landscape of the sector

• How to effectively integrate AI with hardware
• In-house or contractor considerations
• Current Industry standards and the future sector landscape

The leading trading teams now rely on the predictive power of algorithmic bidding platforms, leveraging supervised and reinforced machine learning, to manage bidding for their energy storage assets. Changing market landscapes require these algorithms to flexibly shift between energy and ancillary products to maximize value. This session explores how traders are increasingly finding opportunities with DA and RT energy arbitrage.

Battery energy storage revenue is significantly affected by two factors: location and optimization. As ancillary markets saturate in ERCOT, the majority of battery revenue now comes from energy arbitrage, with significant variability for nodes across and, more importantly, within zones. Using our in-house analysis, we’ll illustrate the relative importance of location and optimization in delivering realized revenues. We’ll discuss how batteries underperform due to suboptimal dispatch and showcase the uplift possible through AI-driven optimization, and review the strategies behind the  top-performing batteries in ERCOT. This session will equip attendees with knowledge on how to achieve the full potential of storage assets in an increasingly dynamic market.

With a 6GW by 2030 energy storage target for New York and NYSERDA-led solicitations for 4.7GW of storage across the utility-scale sector  well underway, how far do regional mechanisms support storage bankability and what will this market look like in the near and long term?

Achieving ROI requires the consideration of a number of asset risks.  Join us to explore the below challenges in detail.

• Insurance premium profiles
• Understanding weather risk
• Safety and thermal runaway

Explosions and deflagrations in BESS are caused by off-gases during a thermal-runaway event.  This presentation will review methods to mitigate these risks in accordance with NFPA 855 including NFPA 68, NFPA 69, and performance based-designs.  We will also discuss updates related to the explosion portion of NFPA 855 including some challenges and limitations it presents.

This presentation will show you how to reduce costs and improve profitability by avoiding design, integration, commissioning, and operational mistakes.

The renewables first approach: How do battery economics reflect the hybrid model?

• DC vs AC coupling
• How does collocating reduce capacity risk?
• Which markets currently make sense?
• Project considerations in hybrid vs standalone assets
• Citing best practice for hybrid projects

Over a lifecycle, the costs of dealing with degradation must be considered in the project’s base case. To do so, we must consider the balance in trade-off between near term and long-term costs.

• When is the best time during a battery’s lifecycle to start thinking about end-of-life strategies?
• Project overbuild versus additional capacity
• Pragmatic strategies for augmentation, how to plan for them during project development and associated costs
• Impact of sizing and risk appetite
• Degradation analysis and the impact on the project’s financial model

This presentation will discuss the latest trends, headwinds, and tailwinds in the battery storage market related to revenue, pricing, domestic content, and tariffs.

Our energy landscape is dramatically transforming as the global demand for AI, machine learning, and cloud computing soars. The rapid proliferation of data centers is placing unprecedented pressure on our energy grids, with projections indicating a rise in electricity demand from 60 GW to 296 GW by 2030, according to forecasts by McKinsey.

Addressing tomorrow’s energy challenges calls for innovative solutions and outside-the-box thinking. Long-duration energy storage  (LDES) solutions provide several answers to the energy challenges created by the current computing revolution. Join us for an engaging session to explore how ESS is helping customers meet this unprecedented demand with its first giga-watt scale and fully modular solution – designed to fit seamlessly into any landscape.

Behind-the-meter systems for large commercial and industrial users represent a smaller segment of the market, but interest in this area is steadily growing.

• Why hasn’t the market expanded faster? (considering market policy and permitting constraints)
• In regions like ERCOT, where distribution grid connections are possible, other markets are also beginning to open up for this type of activity. How can investors and developers make the most of these opportunities?