Moving Electricity by Train Rather than Transmission Lines?

By Peter Maloney, Microgrid Knowledge

In a filing before the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC), Alternative Transmission (ATI) proposes a technology that could bring a new meaning to the concept of non-wires alternatives.

The South Carolina company wants to move batteries by rail for discharge and charge where needed on the electric grid. Further, ATI asks FERC to declare that its facilities and services are transmission resources operating in interstate commerce and, therefore, subject to FERC jurisdiction. The owner of such facilities should be considered a public utility under the Federal Power Act, the company argues.

That alone would make the petition unusual. “Most people try to avoid being regulated as a utility,” says James Mitchell, a partner with Davis Wright Tremaine. The technology application is also unusual. “It is very creative, very innovative,” Mitchell says.

Non-wires alternatives on the move

...ours can go where traditional transmission lines cannot necessarily go -- ATI

In its petition, ATI says its technology involves the “construction of energy transfer stations — charging and discharging — at locations in the continental United States.”

“It is a transmission circuit, like any other,” says Adam Rousselle, president and CEO of ATI. “The difference is that ours can go where traditional transmission lines cannot necessarily go.”

The charging would be done by unaffiliated entities. The energy transfer, the transmission aspect of the technology, would be accomplished by a sort of disaggregated flow battery.

Flow batteries create an electric charge by moving tanks full of electrolytic solutions with opposite electrical charges between a membrane.

ATI would ship charged electrolytic solution via railcars or other modes of transportation to a destination that is either remote, has suffered a disruption to electrical service or where the cost of electricity is higher than at the charging station.

At the discharging station, the energy-carrying fluid would...Continue reading on Microgrid Knowledge.