Page 26 - ESJ – ENERGY STORAGE JOURNAL

COVER STORY: US STATES TO WATCH

other states. The report En- It focuses on programmes that demon-
ergy Storage: The New Effi- strate new applications or business models
ciency - How States Can Use that show storage can provide services that
Efficiency Funds to Support are not currently monetizable through exist-
Battery Storage and Flatten ing markets.
Costly Demand Peaks, was “Massachusetts has always been an early
published by the Clean Ener- adopter of clean energy and environmental
gy Group in response to the issues, but right now there happen to be
plan on April 4. It covers the some people in positions of leadership in-
process the state made to fi- terested in energy storage that are very in-
nalize the plan, and presents terested in getting storage developed in the
economic analysis showing state,” says Olinsky-Paul.
that energy storage can be “There’s also a good number of people in
cost-effectively deployed be- top positions that are interested in making
hind the customer’s meter. the state the Silicon Valley for storage, not
Report author Todd Olin- just developing policy and deployment but
sky-Paul says that as more re- making the state a place that attracts indus-
newable energy is deployed, try to come and set up shop in Massachu-
reducing peak demand be- setts to gain early mover advantage.”
comes more important. And Urgency for reform comes from Massa-
while battery storage can do chusetts paying some of the highest demand
this, states need to expand charge rates— which are utility-specific —
their efficiency plans to em- in the country, equal to California, with
Babinec: While a person brace peak demand reduc- commercial customers in the state paying
$20-30 per kW, CEG’s report found. How-
tion and the new technolo-
may buy an EV they like for gies, like battery storage, that ever, an important qualifier is the high rates
emotional reasons or status, can accomplish it. in Massachusetts are in the Eversource ter-
ritory (which includes Boston). Much lower
The project director with
this is a grid. It’s a commodity, CEG said it marked the first rates are found in National Grid territory.
period. It’s economically time any state had included sachusetts learned from New York, another
Moving forward, one of the lessons Mas-
batteries in an energy effi-
dominated and the economics ciency plan. He added that early adopter state, is not to spend years
of that are really about the life making batteries eligible for and millions of dollars on studies alone.
“It’s a fine line,” says Olinsky-Paul. “You
cycle cost. energy efficiency programs have to spend money on a feasibility study,
opened a new and steady
source of funding to pay in- because you want to make sure you are not
centives to customers that install batteries throwing money at a project that will fail.
at their home, business or rental property. It’s helpful for customers and third parties.
Lewis Milford, president of CEG, said: “But it has to be about more than just
“Energy efficiency programs always have studies. Massachusetts saw that the New
included new energy technologies. Stor- York Prize grant programme issued 83
age is now a technology that deserves early grants for microgrid feasibility studies, at a
stage funding support, a trend that other cost of more than $8 million.
states should follow to bring down their en- “The idea was that this would lead to
ergy costs and bring more customers into communities building projects. A few will
this emerging storage market.” get implementation grants, but who knows
Massachusetts also has its ACES (Ad- whether the rest will move forward? Mi-
vancing Commonwealth Energy Storage) crogrids are complicated and expensive. So
program that promotes leadership and in- when you provide studies, it’s important to
novation in energy storage deployment. It is also provide support for people to act on
the state’s first substantial investment on en- them.”
ergy storage projects with the goal of grow- That said, New York still intends to fund
ing the market. Over the last few months actual project developments, but microgrids,
a number of ACES projects have come on- which is what the NY Prize program was
line and most should be operating by early intended to support, are extremely expen-
2020. sive and take a long time to develop.
“I would say another lesson here is that
big, expensive microgrids are much harder
Babinec: Now that many of those demonstration to develop and much more expensive than
individual storage projects at homes or
projects are done the floodgates can open. They businesses. It’s not the way to bring storage
are not going to go from a tenth of a gigawatt- to scale quickly,” says Olinsky-Paul.
hour to 2GWh until they have pilot demonstrations Making the most of the sun
completed. In 2015, the volcanic archipelago of Hawaii
became the first US state to set the goal of

24 • Energy Storage Journal • Summer 2019 www.energystoragejournal.com