You are correct.

Due to certain tax credits, utilities can break even and even make a little money off of these devices, but it is certainly no slam dunk.

One of the most recent FERC orders deals with directing all the ISO/RTOs to add energy storage participation to markets as long as the battery is 0.1 MW or greater if I recall correctly.

A lot of folks are interested, but there isn't much money in ancillary services or energy for the reasons you described above.

The large-scale storage is pretty sweet though.