It can be hard to keep up with the steady drumbeat of energy storage policy updates emanating from the Northeast, and New York in particular, but last week’s announcement of $55 million allocated for Long Island deserves a second look.
The specifics of the incentive — $250 per kilowatt-hour for residential storage or commercial systems up to 5 megawatts — parallel similar opportunities offered to customers elsewhere in New York as part of a $280 million package launched in April. The earlier tranche was funded by a systems benefit charge that Long Islanders don’t pay; instead, their storage dollars are coming from the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative.
Besides a separate funding structure, Long Island’s geography and grid infrastructure make it a valuable test case for energy storage, as part of Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s ambitious decarbonization program.
“Long Island strikes me as one of the best and earliest locations to reach a completely carbon-free grid, given its solar, storage and offshore wind capabilities,” said Jason Doling, assistant director for distributed energy resources at the New York State Energy Research and Development Agency.
NYSERDA hopes to disburse the storage funds in the next three to five years, with the goal of establishing a local installer base and a sustainable and growing market by the end of that period.
Island limits create storage opportunities
The water separating Long Island from the mainland imposes obvious constraints on delivering electricity to a population that totaled 7.5 million as of the last census. Summer tourism season brings extra stress, regularly forcing the Long Island Power Authority, which owns the grid infrastructure, to truck in portable diesel generators to meet demand.
Storage can defer distribution upgrades, ensuring power supply during peak hours in place of more capital-intensive investments. LIPA tested out this vision when it powered up a 5-megawatt/40-megawatt-hour battery last summer at a substation in East Hampton.
Separately, Cuomo’s administration has developed more stringent nitrogen oxide emissions regulations to target the worst-polluting peaker plants. Plants have until mid-2020 to come into compliance. Emissions reductions are possible by replacing fossil-fueled generators with storage, or adding storage to hybridize the plant.
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