Massachusetts recently became the latest state to adopt an energy storage target, following California’s lead, and recent storage legislation in Nevada and New York.
The Massachusetts storage mandate originated in the legislature last year, when the state legislature passed H.4568, which was signed by the Governor on August 8, 2016. The legislation required the state’s Department of Energy Resources (DOER) to determine by December 31, 2016 whether to set targets for electric companies to procure viable and cost-effective energy storage systems to be achieved by January 1, 2020. If DOER determined that targets were appropriate, then the storage targets were to be adopted by July 1, 2017.
DOER determined the targets to be appropriate, and adopted those targets one day before the July 1, 2017 deadline. DOER adopted a storage target of 200 megawatt-hours, to be achieved by January 1, 2020.
Massachusetts is following a path similar to California, which passed legislation (AB 2514) in 2010 directing the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) to consider adopting energy storage procurement targets. In October 2013, the CPUC adopted an energy storage target of 1,325 megawatts for the state’s three largest investor-owned utilities. The storage must be installed by the end of 2024, and procured through four biennial procurements which commenced in 2014.
In 2015, Oregon adopted an energy storage mandate requiring Portland General Electric and PacifiCorp to procure a minimum of 5 megawatts of energy storage by January 1, 2020. New York also recently passed bills that directed the state’s Public Service Commission to develop a storage procurement target for 2030.