The New York Department of Public Service on April 1 issued the first “State of Storage” annual report announcing progress in reaching New York’s statewide energy storage goal of 3,000 megawatts (MW) by 2030, with an interim objective of deploying 1,500 MW by 2025.
Total deployed or awarded/contracted projects at the end of 2019 totals 706 MW in capacity, or about 47percent of the 2025 target of 1,500 MW and 24 percent of the 2030 target of 3,000 MW, the DPS reported.
The number of energy storage projects in various interconnection queues, which reflects some of these reported projects as well as potential projects in the pipeline, also indicates robust activity in the industry.
Approximately 9,779 MW of energy storage projects are presently in various interconnection queues in New York.
The report is in response to directives in a New York law and from the New York Public Service Commission’s December 13, 2018 order that established the statewide energy storage goals. In this initial energy storage order, the Commission adopted a suite of energy storage deployment policies and actions to achieve its goals.
The energy storage report highlights that the portfolio of programs and actions approved by the Commission in its energy storage order have been effective to-date in building a market for the development and installation of qualified energy storage systems in New York.
The DPS said that declining costs of the technology, coupled with favorable compensation options established by the Commission, is making energy storage an increasingly attractive option to augment the existing pipeline of utility-connected solar photovoltaic (PV) projects being developed in the State.
Projects that combine energy storage with solar PV and use a Community Distributed Generation configuration, reported installed costs as low as $300-$400 per kilowatt hour in 2019.
Energy storage’s eligibility for Value of Distributed Energy Resource (VDER) compensation, and recent changes to that methodology by the Commission that have allowed projects to obtain easier financing, have also contributed to the healthy growth in energy storage development in New York, the DPS said.
VDER is now the most common compensation mechanism chosen by developers and coupling energy storage with a renewable generator allows developers to maximize this compensation in many cases, according to the DPS.
The report is available here.
