374-H:3 Department of Energy Investigation of Energy Storage. –
I. The department of energy shall investigate ways to enable energy storage projects to receive compensation for avoided transmission and distribution costs, including avoided regional and local network service charges, while also participating in wholesale energy markets. The department shall investigate how this might be done for both utility-owned and non-utility-owned energy storage projects, as well as for both behind-the-meter storage and front-of-the-meter storage.
II. The department's investigative proceeding shall specifically consider the following:
(a) How public policy can best establish accurate and efficient price signals for energy storage projects that avoid actual transmission and distribution costs or reduce wholesale electricity market prices.
(b) How to compensate energy storage projects that participate in wholesale electricity markets for actual avoided transmission and distribution costs in a manner that provides net savings to consumers.
(c) How best to encourage both utility and non-utility investments in energy storage projects.
(d) The costs and benefits of a potential bring your own device program; how such a program might be implemented; any statutory or regulatory changes that might be needed to create, facilitate, and implement such a program; and whether such a program should include all distributed energy resources or be limited to distributed energy storage projects.
(e) Any statutory changes the general court should implement, including but not limited to changes to or exceptions from RSA 374-F or RSA 374-G, to enable energy storage projects to receive appropriate compensation for actual avoided transmission and distribution costs while also participating in wholesale energy markets.
(f) Any other topic the department reasonably believes it should consider in order to diligently conduct the proceeding.
III. The department shall report its findings and recommendations to the standing committees of the house of representatives and senate with jurisdiction over energy and utility matters no later than 2 years after initiating the proceeding. The report shall identify ways any recommended statutory changes can minimize any potential conflict with the restructuring policy principles of RSA 374-F.
Source. 2021, 228:2, Pt. I, Sec. 1, eff. Oct. 25, 2021. 2022, 245:31, eff. Aug. 20, 2022.