The Interstate Renewable Energy Council (IREC) issued a report last week that provides additional, independent information about how leaders can address the changing market of distributed energy storage.
This has been an ongoing issue since the distributed energy storage market began. The market needs better regulatory guidance and proactive policies that will guarantee a smooth transition from electrical systems that already exist.
There is a growing percentage of electricity generated from renewable energy sources within the United States. The most popular forms of renewable energy are solar photovoltaic systems. These technologies help to increase the distribution of renewable energy and its storage.
“Distributed energy storage has enormous potential to be a vital tool for states that seek to expand the use of renewable energy, while also offering additional services that can broadly improve the quality and efficiency of the electric service provided by utilities,” Sky Stanfield, lead report author and IREC representative of regulatory matters, said. “IREC developed this report to help identify key regulatory changes that states may want to consider in the near term in order to facilitate rollout of distributed storage in a manner that captures the greatest benefits and promotes a healthy market for storage services.”
The IREC recommends that regulators may want to: provide rate structures with incentives that will motivate energy storage customers to operate their systems to best benefit the electric grid; coordinate oversight of energy storage systems with other government agencies; develop markets for services related to energy storage systems; implement a distribution system plan with a broader scope in order to take full advantage of the benefits of energy storage systems; update interconnection standards to give users of storage systems adequate access to the power grid; and clarify eligibility rules for Net Energy Metering programs.
