New England continues to embrace energy storage
September 24, 2015
Less than a year ago, multiple electric utilities in New England announced rate increases as grid operators struggled to find a way to prevent blackouts and balance the region's electricity usage with available resources. If these troubles merely hinted at more problems ahead for New England's energy infrastructure, then a new report released by the New England Coalition for Affordable Energy serves as a more detailed confirmation. According to the New Haven Register, residents and commercial businesses could be paying up to a total of $5.4 billion in additional energy costs by 2020 if the region's utilities do not act to update the grid. Over that same period, the region is expected to suffer the loss of 167,000 jobs and a subsequent $12 billion decrease in disposable income across New England as a result of higher energy costs. With the electrical grids and economies of multiple states being put in jeopardy, it's no surprise that several local governments are looking to attack the problem head-on with energy storage.
Massachusetts chases ambitious energy storage goals
During the spring, Massachusetts Governor Charlie Baker announced the Energy Storage Initiative, a $10 million plan to fund two studies by the Massachusetts Clean Energy Center and the Department of Energy Resources. The governor's office hopes that the allocation of taxpayer funds will help establish the Bay State as one of the nation's leaders in energy storage adoption, according to the New England Clean Energy Council. To this end, the studies being performed as part of the initiative will focus on opportunities for the state to legislate new, more storage-friendly energy policies. DOER Commissioner and energy storage expert Judith Judson predicted that these improvements will lay the foundation for the state's transition into a hotspot for energy storage deployment.
Rhode Island seeks to offset natural gas with renewables and storage
Following in Massachusetts' footsteps, Rhode Island legislators announced lofty energy goals of their own in August. The initiative, dubbed "Energy 2035," looks to control electricity costs, limit greenhouse gas emissions and extend the longevity of the state's power grid. A closer look at Rhode Island's energy plan reveals that the initiative serves as a neat compromise, designed to appeal to both energy-conscious consumers and large companies that serve as the state's leading consumers of electricity. The deployment of energy storage as a grid modernization effort represents one of the initiative's top priorities.
Maine debuts New England's first utility-scale storage system
Acting as a trial of sorts for the rest of the Northeast, Boothbay, Maine, is now home to its own utility-scale energy storage setup, said Government Technology. Capable of delivering 500 kilowatts of electricity to the power grid, the Boothbay installations are designed to be booted up after the grid begins to reach the limits of capacity during peak demand. Instead of burning additional fossil fuels or, even worse, activating emissions-heavy dirty peaking plants to meet demand, the state grid can draw extra power from standby storage resources.
New York City high-rises limit expenses with thermal energy storage
While grid-oriented energy storage solutions have plenty of cost-saving benefits to consider, this is just one of many energy storage strategies that are currently being deployed in New England. Another solution, thermal energy storage, has been successfully utilized by multiple New York City corporate offices. Iconic skyscrapers such as Rockefeller Center and 11 Madison Avenue utilize CALMAC's IceBank thermal energy storage tanks to store ice at night. The ice is melted during the day and distributed across campus to keep buildings cool, easing the strain on each building's power grid and helping facilities cut their electric bills considerably.
