Applied Economics Clinic and Clean Energy Group have released a new report that finds that customer-sited battery storage is by far the lowest priced new winter peaking resource now available to Massachusetts utilities; that payments to customers enrolled in the Commonwealth’s ConnectedSolutions battery program should be increased by at least 33 percent; and that program budgets should be expanded significantly.
The report, Energy Storage for Winter Grid Reliability: How Batteries Became the Low-Cost Solution for Power Assurance in Massachusetts, also finds that currently, the value of winter peaking capacity services from distributed (customer-sited) resources is incorrectly assumed to be $0 in the battery program cost-benefit analyses that determine performance payments to battery storage owners. The true value of these important services should be calculated and used in determining future winter seasonal performance payment rates for battery customers.
The report can be downloaded here
