SK Innovation proposes price-bidding ESS to boost DER market
SK Innovation proposed a time-of-use (TOU) price bidding mechanism for energy storage systems (ESS) within industrial complexes, advocating for amendments to current regulations to allow for flexible pricing and supply.
Our take
Would time-of-use bidding give battery storage in Korea a merchant route to industrial buyers?
Battery storage selling to industrial park tenants in Korea has no merchant route, because the direct-trading notice fixes counterparty, share, term and volume in advance, and time-of-use bidding is one company's request, not a government plan.
Hourly pricing would let storage sellers earn from shifting solar output rather than a fixed contract profile, but it needs new rules in the notice. The climate ministry decides that amendment, and its official at the forum did not back the model.
For investors — Merchant storage investors and optimisers should not model hourly price revenue from industrial park sales under current rules and should treat time-of-use bidding as an upside case that depends on a notice amendment.
Corporate buyers in industrial parks should plan on fixed-term direct contracts for renewable electricity, with storage sellers as one supplier type, until the notice changes.
Watch: Discussion of proposed regulatory amendments for price-bidding ESS.
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