BESS NEWS Publishes Practical Guide for Battery Operators Based on 118th OCCTO Committee Materials

BESS NEWS, a specialized news site providing essential information on grid-scale batteries for free, has published an explanatory article based on materials from the 118th "Committee on Adjustment Capacity and Supply-Demand Balance Evaluation" by the Organization for Cross-regional Coordination of Transmission Operators (OCCTO). The article outlines key points that BESS operators, consumers, and financial institutions should check in their practical operations. The article is titled "'118th Committee on Adjustment Capacity and Supply-Demand Balance Evaluation': The Focus of Power Supply and Demand Shifts to 'Outage Cost' and 'Adjustment Capacity' - How will Outage Costs be Handled? Key Discussions on Verifying Supply and Demand and Securing Adjustment Capacity."

The value of this article is not simply confirming the "supply and demand forecast for summer 2026." For BESS operators, the crucial aspect is how to connect the forecast—that the reserve margin in the Tokyo area at 17:00 in August will remain in the 3% range even including bids—to their own project development, revenue hypotheses, SOC management, contract design, and investor presentations.

The materials show a forecast that a reserve margin of 3% or more, the minimum required for stable supply, can be secured in all areas for summer 2026. On the other hand, the time of minimum reserve margin in the Tokyo area, 17:00, is 3.5% in early August and 3.7% in late August, a level that cannot be said to have much leeway even including bids. Furthermore, this figure incorporates the successful kW bid volume of 976,000 kW in the Tokyo area. In other words, this document is not an announcement that "new bidding is about to begin." However, for BESS operators, it serves as material to reconfirm the value of the kW they can reliably provide in the summer evenings.

In the main text of BESS NEWS, based on this primary information, the points that BESS operators should check next are organized from a practical perspective. For example, for operators considering BESS projects in the Tokyo area, it is important whether they can secure SOC capable of discharging on August evenings, which markets/applications to prioritize contractually, and whether PCS, communications, and EMS can reliably respond to commands. For operators proposing BESS or emergency power sources to consumers, it is crucial how to use outage costs as material for explaining BCP and resilience value, rather than just "revenue projections." For operators considering participation in the supply and demand adjustment market, it is important to distinguish which products are compatible with batteries as fast-responding resources, and that this document alone does not finalize dedicated quotas for batteries.

This BESS NEWS article is a practical guide that organizes "what BESS operators should check next," which is easily overlooked when just reading institutional materials.

Table of Contents

Themes explained by BESS NEWS this time
1-1. Serves as material to examine "evening kW value" for Tokyo area projects
1-2. Provides a perspective to consider next revenue opportunities even for unsuccessful BESS bids
1-3. Outage costs and adjustment capacity can be used for proposals, investment decisions, and operational design

Three points BESS operators should pay particular attention to
2-1. Tokyo area at 17:00 in August is in the 3% range even including bids
2-2. The 976,000 kW bid is not a new recruitment but an incorporation of already successful supply capacity
2-3. Outage costs and adjustment capacity can be used to explain BESS value, but beware of misinterpretation

Things to check practically in BESS projects
3-1. Is there SOC capable of discharging at that time?
3-2. Are you looking at ROI by separating emergency value from market/system revenues?
3-3. Are you misunderstanding that new systems, new bids, or dedicated quotas have been finalized?

1. Themes explained by BESS NEWS this time

This BESS NEWS article is not merely a summary of OCCTO materials. It is an article organized for BESS operators, aggregators, companies considering introducing consumer equipment, financial institutions, and investors to use this supply and demand forecast for their own judgments. In particular, for operators considering BESS projects in the Tokyo area, 17:00 on August evenings in summer 2026 will be an important checkpoint. According to the document, the minimum reserve margin at 17:00 in the Tokyo area is 3.5% in early August and 3.7% in late August. While it is forecast to secure 3% or more in all areas, August evenings in Tokyo should be viewed as a phase where it is "finally in the 3% range after incorporating additional supply capacity," rather than reading it as "having a large margin." This information has the following practical merits for BESS operators.

It serves as material to confirm how reliably kW can be output on summer evenings for projects in the Tokyo area. It becomes easier to explain the value of BESS to consumers and investors not only in terms of "energy amount" but also "output capable of being delivered at the required time." Even for unsuccessful resources, it prompts consideration of which system or contract should be used to generate value, such as bilateral contracts, DR/VPP, capacity markets, or supply and demand adjustment markets. Additionally, reference calculations for outage costs serve as explanatory material for proposing BESS to consumers and for BCP measures. For factories, refrigerated warehouses, medical/communication facilities, stores, etc.,