New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo on July 3 announced $55 million for energy storage including commercial and residential storage projects on Long Island.
The program will be launched with an initial rollout of nearly $15 million in incentives from the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority.
The $15 million will be immediately available to Long Island residents and businesses for commercial and residential projects through NYSERDA's Retail Energy Storage Incentive Program. The remainder of the funds will be allocated within the next three to five years and targeted in a manner to drive down costs and scale up the market for these clean energy technologies.
The incentives released this month will support energy storage installed at customer sites for standalone systems or systems paired with solar.
Funding is available in the following two categories:
Commercial Incentives
NYSERDA's Retail Energy Storage Incentive Program will support new grid-connected energy storage systems up to five megawatts of alternating current connection located either with load behind-the-meter or connected directly to the distribution system.
The first block incentive will offer $250 per kilowatt hour of energy storage installed. Eligible energy storage systems include chemical, thermal, or mechanical systems compensated under a Public Service Electric and Gas Long Island (PSEG-LI) tariff or load relief program. Eligible systems may be installed alone or paired with on-site generation like solar.
Residential Incentives
NYSERDA and PSEG-LI are also jointly launching a residential solar-plus-energy storage program that provides new projects in Long Island with an upfront storage incentive through NYSERDA's NY-Sun Program as well as additional compensation through PSEG-LI's Dynamic Load Management (DLM) tariff.
The DLM tariff pays customers to reduce the amount of electricity used from the electric grid during hours when the demand for power is highest. NY-Sun will initially release two incentive blocks for new residential solar-plus-storage systems beginning at $250 per kWh of installed energy storage and then declining to $200 per kWh in the second block.
Targeting incentives towards projects that pair solar and storage
Cuomo’s office said that targeting incentives towards projects that pair solar and energy storage technologies will not only help continue to drive down costs but will help residential customers see value in de-carbonizing the grid and improving its resiliency.
With 48,500 solar projects on Long Island, totaling more than 365 megawatts, “shifting focus to programs that support the coupling of solar and energy storage technologies will further support the transformation of Long Island's clean energy market,” Cuomo’s office said in a news release.
“New York State is becoming a national leader in battery storage,” said Dan Eichhorn, President and COO, PSEG Long Island. “This funding supports modernizing Long Island's energy grid with new technology that will help PSEG Long Island meet New York's ambitious clean energy goals. I applaud the Governor for his steadfast commitment to Long Island and New York's clean energy economy."
The Long Island energy storage incentives build on the $280 million in incentives announced by Cuomo in April as part of a $400 million investment to achieving New York's energy storage targets and a $250 million commitment the New York Power Authority (NYPA) made in December to accelerate the flexibility of the electric grid by collaborating on grid-scale energy storage projects and addressing market and financing barriers.
In December 2018, the New York Public Service Commission approved an order that adopted Cuomo's target for 1,500 MW of energy storage by 2025 and establishing a 3,000 MW target by 2030.
