The Connecticut General Assembly last week passed legislation that targets 1 GW of energy storage deployment by the end of 2030. If Gov. Ned Lamont signs the bill into law, which he is expected to do, Connecticut will become the eighth state to target or mandate energy storage.

Senate Bill 952, which cleared the Senate on May 20 and the House of Representatives on Thursday without opposition, would establish energy storage goals and program requirements in addition to procurement authority. It would also require that the Department of Energy and Environmental Protection (DEEP) report on “quantifiable progress” to the General Assembly’s Energy and Technology Committee each year, beginning in 2023.

The state would need 1 GW of storage by 2030, with interim targets of 300 MW by 2024 and 650 MW by 2027. In addition, the Public Utilities Regulatory Authority (PURA) would have to develop and implement program and funding mechanisms for storage connected to the state’s electric grid and report on the progress of its efforts to the Energy and Technology Committee. DEEP could also issue requests for proposals for transmission and distribution grid-connected energy storage, which would factor toward deployment targets.

Lawmakers amended the bill to allow DEEP to select storage projects paired with certain hydropower facilities with a nameplate capacity up to 100 MW. They also eliminated a provision requiring municipal utilities to report on the progression of their carbon reductions.

Any programs developed and implemented by PURA would need to include provisions for residential, commercial and industrial, and front-of-the-meter storage. PURA would also need to consult with state agencies and authorities on program design, including DEEP, Connecticut Green Bank, electric distribution companies and the Office of Consumer Counsel.

PURA’s programs would also need to meet several other goals and requirements:

• • • positive net present value of deployments to ratepayers;
    • provide ancillary services;
    • resilience and peak demand reduction;
    • fostering the development of an energy storage industry; and
    • maximizing storage systems’ value of participation in ISO-NE’s capacity markets.

PURA must also consider non-wires alternatives to ease congestion or mitigate other issues on the grid that defer investment in potentially expensive power system upgrades.

RENEW Northeast Executive Director Francis Pullaro said during an interview after the Senate passed the bill that he was “a little bit concerned” that it does not increase the storage targets before the end of the decade. However, he strongly supported the bill, which legislators proposed during their 2020 session.

Pullaro said that when there is more energy storage powered by renewables in Connecticut, fewer “old, dirty peaking” fossil fuel units will be needed for grid reliability. Pullaro said ISO-NE’s capacity auctions keep the latter resources “afloat” despite auctions showing that battery energy storage is among the least-cost new resource technologies.