Time is running out for stakeholders offering comments to Washington’s Utilities and Transportation Commission (WUTC) on its draft policy statement regarding how energy storage is treated by investor-owned utilities’ (IOUs) in their integrated resource planning (IRP).
The commission issued its draft document at the beginning of this month as part of a lengthy undertaking to evaluate the potential roles of mostly large-scale in front of meter energy storage in utility networks which began in May 2015.
Investor-owned utilities in the US offer up integrated resource plans to their regional regulators which outline and explain how they are preparing to meet forecasted peak and energy demand over the coming year.
The WUTC said that following a 2015 whitepaper and subsequent workshop events it had concluded that advances in energy storage and the need for decarbonisation and modernisation of networks meant the technologies had a likely role in IRP going forward. The commission determined to offer guidance for utilities to follow, leading to the latest draft policy. Respondents have until 3 April this year to respond to the 17-page WUTC policy document.
“The Commission releases this draft policy statement for comment, and requests responses from interested persons to assist the Commission in developing a final policy statement that provides useful guidance to investor-owned utilities (IOUs), vendors seeking to promote energy storage for use by IOUs, and those interested in the use of energy storage on electric distribution systems,” the draft said.
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