SMP 213: Unlocking Energy Storage Value: PJM Market Reforms with Brattle Group’s Serena Patel

Unlocking Energy Storage Value: PJM Market Reforms with Brattle Group’s Serena Patel

Episode Overview:

In this special live episode of the Solar Maverick Podcast, recorded at the 2025 Mid-Atlantic Solar & Storage Industries Association (“MSSIA”) Solar & Storage Insight Conference in New Brunswick, NJ, host Benoy Thanjan sits down with Serena Patel, Energy Research Associate at The Brattle Group, to unpack critical energy storage market reforms in the PJM interconnection.

The conversation focuses on a groundbreaking report from Brattle, commissioned by the American Clean Power Association, that lays out a roadmap for unlocking the full value of energy storage across U.S. energy markets.

Key Topics Covered:

• Why PJM’s current market design undervalues flexible storage resources
• The two most urgent market reforms:

▪ Opportunity cost bidding for energy storage

▪ Creation of new ancillary service and ramping reserve products

• How suppressed price signals hinder storage operators’ revenue
• Lessons from other RTOs like CAISO and NYISO that PJM can implement now
• The case for all-source procurement in local reliability planning
• The critical role of stakeholder engagement and policy advocacy to push reforms forward

Featured Report:

Energy Storage Market Design Reforms: A Roadmap to Unlock the Potential of Energy Storage

By: Brattle Group for the American Clean Power Association

Released: April 2025

https://www.brattle.com/insights-events/publications/brattle-experts-prepared-an-energy-storage-market-reform-roadmap-for-several-us-electricity-markets/

Notable Quotes:

“Our current systems were built for legacy fossil fuel generators. If we don’t reform the markets now, we risk undervaluing the flexibility that storage offers.” – Serena Patel

“Opportunity cost bidding would help storage developers maximize revenue by bidding strategically, rather than being constrained by outdated market rules.” – Serena Patel

 

Takeaway for Developers & Policymakers:

To accelerate storage deployment, developers must actively engage in PJM stakeholder processes and advocate for reforms that enable revenue stacking and flexibility compensation. The Brattle report offers actionable insights to guide that involvement.

 

Thanks to MSSIA:

Special thanks to the MiSSIA for hosting the Solar Maverick Podcast at their first annual conference and for their continued solar and storage advocacy in NJ, PA, and DE.

 

Benoy Thanjan

Benoy Thanjan is the Founder and CEO of Reneu Energy and he is also an advisor for several solar startup companies.  He has extensive project origination, development, and financial experience in the renewable energy industry and in the environmental commodities market.  

This includes initial site evaluation, permitting, financing, sourcing equipment, and negotiating the long-term energy and environmental commodities off-take agreements. He manages due diligence processes on land, permitting, and utility interconnection and is in charge of financing
and structuring through Note to Proceed (“NTP”) to Commercial Operation Date (“COD”). Benoy composes teams suitable for all project development and construction tasks. He is also involved in project planning and pipeline financial modeling. He has been part of all sides of the
transaction and this allows him to provide unique perspectives and value.

Benoy has extensive experience in financial engineering to make solar projects profitable.

Before founding Reneu Energy, he was the SREC Trader in the Project Finance Group for SolarCity which merged with Tesla in 2016.  He originated SREC trades with buyers and co-developed their SREC monetization and hedging strategy with the senior management of SolarCity to move into the east coast markets. 

Benoy was the Vice President at Vanguard Energy Partners which is a national solar installer where he focused on project finance solutions for commercial scale solar projects.  He also worked for Ridgewood Renewable Power, a private equity fund, where he analyzed potential investments in renewable energy projects and worked on maximizing the financial return of the projects in the portfolio.  Benoy also worked on the sale of all of the renewable energy projects in Ridgewood’s portfolio.  

He was in the Energy Structured Finance practice for Deloitte & Touche and in Financial Advisory Services practice at Ernst & Young.  Benoy received his first experience in Finance as an intern at D.E. Shaw & Co., which is a global investment firm with 37 billion dollars in investment capital. He has a MBA in Finance from Rutgers University and a BS in Finance and Economics from the Stern School of Business at New York University.  Benoy was an Alumni Scholar at the Stern School of Business. 

 

Serena Patel 

Serena Patel is an Energy Research Associate at The Brattle Group, where she focuses on electricity market design and energy storage economics. She was a lead author on the ACP-sponsored market reform report and is deeply involved in clean energy policy development.

 

Stay Connected:

Benoy Thanjan

Email: info@reneuenergy.com 

LinkedIn: Benoy Thanjan

Website: https://www.reneuenergy.com

 

Serena Patel

Website:  https://www.brattle.com/

Linkedin:  https://www.linkedin.com/in/serena-naresh-patel/

 

Summer Solstice Fundraiser

Join Reneu Energy, Rosemawr Management, Polar Racking, Positive Deviancy, and the Solar Maverick Podcast for the 2025 Summer Solstice Fundraiser!

This special evening will take place on Thursday, June 5th, from 6 PM to 10 PM at Hudson Hall in Jersey City, NJ. We'll also be raising funds for the Let's Share the Sun Foundation, which aids impoverished communities in harnessing solar energy.

Event Highlights:

-Venue: Hudson Hall, a Czech biergarten and smokehouse co-owned by Benoy, CEO of Reneu Energy.

-Time: 6 PM to 10 PM, with delicious food throughout the evening.

-Tickets: $50

https://www.tickettailor.com/events/reneuenergy/1653652