
On 19 October 2023, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) issued a final rule directing the North American Reliability Corporation (NERC) to develop new or modified reliability standards to tackle the issue of grid reliability gaps relating to inverter-based resources (IBRs). 1 The reliability standards will impact wind and solar renewables, as well as battery storage. [pdf]
This Standard specifies the electrical installation requirements for inverter energy systems and grid protection devices with ratings up to 10 kVA for single-phase units, or up to 30 kVA for three-phase units, for the injection of electric power through an electrical installation to the electricity distribution network.
As required by Order No. 901, NERC will file reliability standards in three phases through late 2026. Energy storage resources are undoubtedly versatile assets that can play a number of different roles on the grid, including to support transmission reliability.
As cited in the DOE OE ES Program Plan, “Industry requires specifications of standards for characterizing the performance of energy storage under grid conditions and for modeling behavior. Discussions with industry professionals indicate a significant need for standards ” [1, p. 30].
Table 3.1. Energy Storage System and Component Standards 2. If relevant testing standards are not identified, it is possible they are under development by an SDO or by a third-party testing entity that plans to use them to conduct tests until a formal standard has been developed and approved by an SDO.
FERC also gave NERC flexibility to “propose to develop new or modified Reliability Standards that address [FERC’s] concerns in an equally efficient and effective manner,” but in that case, NERC must “explain how the new or modified Reliability Standards address the Commission’s concerns” discussed in Order No. 901. 11
Discussions with industry professionals indicate a significant need for standards ” [1, p. 30]. Under this strategic driver, a portion of DOE-funded energy storage research and development (R&D) is directed to actively work with industry to fill energy storage Codes & Standards (C&S) gaps.

The government announced its CO2 reduction target for 2020. The target represents a 30% reduction from the estimated level of 2020. This goal is deemed very challenging since Korean industry had doubled its greenhouse gas emissions between 1990 and 2005, the fastest growth in the OECD. Korea has voluntarily set its 2020 emission reduction target. With this pledge, Seoul seeks to be a model for other countries including China and India who are catego. [pdf]

A VESS integrates multiple controllable elements of energy systems, such as traditional energy storage systems, flexible loads, microgrids, distributed generators, multi-vector energy systems and local DC networks. It is able to respond to external signals by varying its. . The use of renewable energy sources is growing rapidly, but this also means that there are more unknown variables and fluctuations in power and voltage. Virtual energy storage systems. . The promising features of VESS are outlined below: • The system can integrate renewable energy sourcesinto distribution networks more easily. Fluctuations in renewable energy generation output can be smoothed by the charging or discharging of a VESS.. [pdf]
American Samoa’s energy sector relies almost entirely on imported fossil fuels, although renewables represent a small but growing power system contribution. The territory possesses substantial solar energy resources, as well as wind and biomass resource potential.
Of the 5 MW of ASPA’s grid-connected solar PV capacity, 4.1 MW is utility scale and 900 kW is distributed across rooftops. American Samoa’s smaller islands are moving toward a combination of solar, batteries, and diesel generators.
Average U.S. and American Samoa Electricity Prices (2022) ASPA rates are down slightly as of January 2024—approximately $0.41/kWh for residential and commercial customers and $0.38/kWh for industrial customers. ASPA’s total energy rates include a renewable energy flat rate charged at $0.002/kWh across all service types (ASPA 2024).
Fuel for American Samoa comes from Singapore with Busan, South Korea as an alternate provider if needed. In the case of fuel disruption, Pacific Energy prioritizes serving ASPA to ensure power and water treatment services are not interrupted (Pacific Energy representative, personal communication, August 9, 2023).
The 2016 American Samoa Energy Action Plan identifies some geothermal resources, but none of these are viable for commercial electricity generation. The 2016 plan instead emphasizes the development of wind and solar power (Ness, Haase, and Conrad 2016). American Samoa is exploring opportunities for both offshore and onshore wind power generation.
American Samoa plans to make these data available to the public, to students of the Finafinau Group (an island community-service project focused on environmental conservation and resilience), and to all other interested parties for science projects and related activities (American Samoa Governor’s Office 2023a).
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