National Grid asked state regulators to allow it to dispatch and sell into the wholesale market the output from a little-used energy storage system.

In its petition to the New York Public Service Commission (PSC), National Grid said the company-owned 2 MW/3 MWh battery storage project at its East Pulaksi Substation was installed in 2018 to meet peak load reduction needs during the summer months to mitigate at-risk load. National Grid said the project remains idle during most of the year.

The utility had built the Pulaski project, as well as another battery facility to meet state mandates and help achieve energy storage goals. Now, National Grid is seeking PSC approval to bid energy, capacity, and/or ancillary services available from the Pulaski project into the New York Independent System Operator markets.

According to the petition, National Grid believes this will aid the utility’s understanding of such transactions before the company deploys two larger bulk battery projects–the 20 MW/40 MWh Old Forge and the 10 MW/20 MWh North Lakeville projects — that have expected in-service dates before 2023.

Although the Pulaski project is smaller, it is similar to the bulk projects. That means lessons learned now would benefit the utility when it comes time to bid the bulk units into the NYISO wholesale market.

National Grid also said that the financial gains would ultimately benefit utility customers and allow the company to use the Pulaski project more effectively when it’s not needed for local reliability.

The full petition is available here.