This whitepaper, commissioned by Oncor Electric Delivery Company, shows that deploying electricity storage on distribution systems across Texas could provide substantial net benefits to the state. The analysis assumes that the storage deployment plan will be developed to capture as much benefits as possible by integrating value from increasing customer reliability, improving the transmission and distribution systems, and transacting in the wholesale power markets.

Their analysis accounts for the net impact that deploying storage would have on generation investments in ERCOT's "energy only" wholesale electricity market with the resulting generation investment resposne sustains market prices sufficient to support the development of the generating capacity necessary to maintain ERCOT's resource adequacy. Storage investments could not be undertaken at an efficient scale solely by merchant developers in the Texas restructured electricity market because the value that a merchant storage developer can capture and monetize through transacting in the wholesale power market alone is too low compared to costs.

Given the significant benefits that storage can bring to the system as a whole, enabling cost-effective investments in electricity storage will require a regulatory framework that helps investors capture btoh the wholesale market and the T&D system values associated with the storage devices.