Page 28 - ESJ – ENERGY STORAGE JOURNAL

COVER STORY: US STATES TO WATCH

Moving forward
Olinsky-Paul: Massachusetts has always been Above all, when it comes to BTM and FTM
an early adopter of clean energy and environmental deployment, the main drivers for the market
are the declining installed costs of storage
issues, but right now there happen to be some — roughly 10% year-on-year — and the in-
people in positions of leadership interested in energy creasing needs for flexibility on the power
system.
storage. For BTM systems, incentive programs play
a critical role in driving down soft costs.
“Long term, the key for these systems will
be regulatory and market reforms that cre-
ate additional opportunities to provide ser-
vices and secure revenue streams beyond the
primary application for the customer (back
up or bill management),” says Goldberger.
Today, when it comes to BTM deploy-
ment, the pecking order sees California re-
main in the lead with Hawaii, Massachu-
setts and New York following.
Hawaii will continue to be a very strong
state in the coming years, but Massachu-
setts and New York are catching up, albeit
at the start of their upward trajectory right
now, says Simon. “Both states have, over
the past year, and especially in the past six
months, been initiating policy directives
that are opening the door for behind the
meter storage.”
Moving forward — possibly as early
as the mid-2020s — Massachusetts and
New York could pull ahead of Hawaii in
the BTM market because policy initiatives
will lead to storage market growth in both
states, starting in the early 2020s, and lead
hasn’t been built out to satisfy the high to them to overtaking Hawaii’s commercial
demand charges in New York, especially and industrial market during that period,
downstate, are certain permitting challeng- says Simon.
es, which are being worked through, though However, because the BTM market in-
the timeline remains murky. cludes both residential and non-residential
“Then there’s also the resilience angle for applications, Hawaii will probably remain
New York. It was a state that was hit hard the number two-state. But when it comes to
by Hurricane Sandy, which is still pretty C&I applications, then New York and Mas-
strongly in the public consciousness. So we sachusetts could very likely pass Hawaii,
are going to see municipalities and local with Simon predicting that New York could
governments and critical infrastructure like become the definitive number two in the
hospitals and fire stations look to solutions C&I markets by the early 2020s.
like storage to ensure they have back-up in In states where there are integrated re-
the event of another catastrophe.” source planning and transmission planning
In April, the state also launched its NYPA processes in place, FTM systems can com-
Innovation Challenge, devised by utility pete head-to-head with traditional peaking
New York Power Authority and Urban Fu- plants and transmission investment if states
ture Lab at New York University’s Tandon revise their rules to require that ESSs are
School of Engineering. evaluated and considered fairly, as seen in
The challenge connects early stage clean- Colorado, Washington, and New Mexico.
tech start-ups to the utility, enabling next- “As for front-of-the-meter systems on
generation technology demonstrations de- distribution systems,” says Goldberger,
signed to rapidly scale across its network of “Regulatory reforms are needed to enable
businesses and customers. the same asset to serve several applications,
The utility will seek public and private including clarifications around ownership
partners with expertise in innovation, en- and dual market participation for assets
ergy efficiency and clean energy generation that are providing grid services — doing so
to support advanced pilots of new technol- can unlock significant value and make proj-
ogy and business models as the power grid ect economics quite favorable.”
transforms and begins to work with more
distributed energy resources and grid edge Laying foundations
solutions. The foundation for US market expansion

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