Six months after a target was set, energy storage in Massachusetts is beginning to take off, albeit slowly, as policies continue to evolve.
Ongoing challenges to wider adoption include questions about whether storage is eligible to net meter under the state’s rules and who retains the capacity value of storage in ISO New England’s forward capacity market.
Target spurs projects
In June, the state’s Department of Energy Resources set a 200 MWh-by-Jan. 1, 2020, target for energy storage.
Since then, the state’s Department of Public Utilities (DPU) has approved a rate increase for Eversource Energy utilities NSTAR Electric and Western Massachusetts Electric that includes $15 million for a 5 MW storage facility on Martha’s Vineyard and up to $40 million for a 12 MW energy storage project on Cape Cod.
In October, ENGIE North America and Holyoke Gas & Electric said they would build a 3 MW, 6 MWh storage project, the largest to date in Massachusetts, at the 5.7 MW Mt. Tom solar farm that went online in January 2017.
In November, National Grid said it plans to install a 6 MW, 48 MWh battery storage system on Nantucket to back up a new diesel generator on the island.
And in mid-December, Massachusetts awarded $20 million in grants to 26 energy storage projects, doubling the state’s original $10 million commitment. The grants were awarded under the state’s Advancing Commonwealth Energy Storage (ACES) program that is part of the Energy Storage Initiative (ESI) funded by the Department of Energy Resources.
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