NY working hard to catch up with CA’s energy storage requirements

Bill Radvak

Battery storage is gaining more and more traction in the distributed energy resources community.  Last fall, California passed the first statewide energy storage directive in the United States. Issued by the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC), the mandate requires all investor-owned utilities in the state including Southern California Edison, Pacific Gas & Electric and San Diego Gas & Electric, to jointly purchase “1325 megawatts of energy storage” by 2020.

“The proposed targets increase between 30% and 55% every two years, creating economic incentives for multiple players with various technologies to enter the market reports Energy Storage North America in a press release:

• “Utilities will be allowed to employ energy storage for a variety of functions, such as capacity, ancillary services, and peak shaving, which in turn will provide real-world data for further market expansion.
• Utilities may own some energy storage systems, and will procure at least 50% from independent developers across all segments of the grid via existing procurement processes or “all-source” solicitations starting in 2014.”

California’s PUC is clearly progressive and groundbreaking and sets the stage for other states to emulate.  Next up at the plate as a hot, receptive market for energy storage in North America is New York.   Bill Acker, Executive Director of the New York Battery and Energy Storage Technology Consortium is positioning New York State as a global leader in energy storage technology, including applications in grid storage, transportation and power electronics.

Last summer, Governor Andrew M. Cuomo announced a $23 million public-private investment in the creation of a battery storage test and commercialization center in partnership with NY-BEST which moved state-of-the-art energy storage testing capabilities from Pennsylvania to a facility at the Eastman Business Park in Rochester, New York.  A few months later, the Governor’s office announced that the NOHMs Technologies is locating its pilot nanoscale battery materials manufacturing facility in Rochester and received $1.5 million in funding from the Governor’s Regional Economic Development Councils initiative. 

“The key to powering our economic growth is expanding our energy infrastructure,” said Governor Cuomo at his 2012 State of the State Address.  “We can build a new energy system across our entire State.”  Cuomo spearheaded the New York Energy Highway Blueprint which includes initiatives to modernize New York’s statewide energy system.

In his State of the State speech in Albany this month, the Governor and Vice President Biden championed community based microgrid solutions as part of his “Reimagining New York for a New Reality” initiative which is a $17 billion strategy that will transform the state’s energy supply, infrastructure, emergency management, etc., to protect people from future extreme weather. “Our plan completely transforms the way we build and protect our infrastructure, safeguard our energy supply, prepare our citizens and first responders, and provide fuel and electricity,” said Governor Cuomo. Cuomo’s mandate to launch new projects across the state that both create green jobs and protect New York's natural environment is a critical economic reform in this year’s budget.

 “Community grids protect people, businesses and infrastructure from the devastation of extreme weather and from extended power outages, as were experienced following Superstorm Sandy, Hurricane Irene and Tropical Storm Lee," said Jim Gallagher, Executive Director, New York State Smart Grid Consortium.

In December 2013, the U.S. Department of Energy released a Grid Energy Storage report which examined the challenges and solutions for energy storage technology development and widespread installation.  Ensuring safety and cost sensitive pricing were key issues addressed in this report.  This report clearly signals to me that the U.S. government clearly wants to create a substantial energy storage marketplace and is laying the groundwork to make this a reality.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
 
Bill Radvak is President & CEO of American Vanadium Corp. (TSX-V:AVC, OTC:AVCVF), which is developing America’s only domestic source of vanadium electrolyte.