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White House drives effort to boost storage, renewables
Christa Marshall, E&E reporter
Published: Thursday, June 16, 2016
The White House today issued a flurry of executive actions and private­sector commitments to boost renewable
energy and more than double energy storage by decade's end.
In total, the actions stretching from the Department of Energy to Microsoft Corp.'s data centers are expected to
result in at least 1.3 gigawatts of additional storage in the next five years and potentially lead to $1 billion in
investments, the White House said. By comparison, approximately 226 megawatts of energy storage capacity
came online last year, bringing cumulative installed capacity to 500 MW, according to GTM Research.
The White House is hosting a summit today with energy companies, cities and regulators to discuss renewable
energy and energy storage. Simultaneously, the White House Council of Economic Advisers released a report
calling for a "reimagining of the management of the grid." The study concludes, for example, that energy
storage needs to be able to bid into different grid management markets "in a way that captures their full value."
Ravi Manghani, a senior energy storage analyst for GTM, said the announcement is significant partly because
"it's the executive push for energy storage and is bound to have spill­over effects beyond the 33 actions and
anticipated $1 billion in investments that will result from these commitments."
"Secondly, and the more tangible impact is the efforts of the U.S. military to achieve resiliency through energy
storage. It's no secret that the military has strategic and security value for resiliency, and the Navy and Air Force
approaching these goals through storage is meaningful," Manghani said. In a research note, GTM said the
commitments could provide an "upward bump in the storage outlook." It has projected annual storage
deployments to grow to 2.1 gigawatts by 2021.
The administration said the U.S. General Services Administration would issue a request for information about
potential storage options, particularly for emergency backup and for managing peak electricity loads. The Navy
and Air Force simultaneously announced support for multiple projects, including a 100­MW battery project at
Naval Weapons Station Seal Beach in California and a microgrid project at Joint Base Pearl Harbor­Hickam in
Hawaii.
The Air Force recently unveiled a new slogan "mission assurance is energy assurance" with support for large­
scale renewable projects at bases (Greenwire, April 13).
Additionally, the Department of Energy is rolling out multiple pilot projects and partnerships. The National
Renewable Energy Laboratory committed today to releasing a study this August examining increased
renewable energy to the Eastern Interconnection grid. The Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory pledged to
release an analysis by this fall on demand response in California. And the U.S. Energy Information
Administration said it would launch a pilot project next year measuring end­use energy consumption in
American households.
Outside of the federal government, 16 utilities, state governments and companies made additional pledges.
Those included:
A commitment from Duke Energy Corp. to deploy at least 5 MW of energy storage near Asheville,
N.C.
A $10 million plan in Massachusetts for demonstration projects and a study examining benefits of
bringing more storage into the state.
A $3 billion pledge from Pacific Gas and Electric Co. to support grid resiliency and distributed
energy resources.
A partnership between Con Edison Inc. and Siemens AG to "make available detailed data for use
by consumers and renewable energy providers for planning and economic analysis purposes."
The first grid­scale battery energy storage system in the Midcontinent Independent System
Operator region from Indianapolis Power & Light Co.
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Pledges from Invenergy LLC to double its deployment of advanced energy storage; Sunrun Inc. to
expand its home solar and storage package outside of Hawaii to three states within three years;
Microsoft and Primus Power to launch a pilot program with storage at Microsoft's data centers;
and Opower to scale its demand­response operations to 200,000 additional households.
Manghani said that in some cases power companies were already on a path to grow storage investments due
to state mandates and "strategic business decisions." Microsoft and Facebook, for example, announced
support for a coalition this May to double the deployment of new corporate renewable energy within a decade
(E&ENews PM, May 12).
Yet, Scott Clausen, research and policy associate at the American Council on Renewable Energy, said the
large number of commitments could boost renewables and storage in regions where they have not been as
prevalent, as well as help drive down technology costs.
The announcement comes as the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission is seeking input on "barriers" to
energy storage (Greenwire, April 19). The Energy Storage Association urged FERC in its submitted comments
last month to direct grid operators to incorporate tariff language facilitating energy storage in "all market
services." Critics of the current system say there needs to be a clearer definition of storage, which can be
classified as either infrastructure or energy supply, among other things.
In a statement, the association said it supported "the administration's efforts to ensure fair and competitive
market access for energy storage technologies," adding that "we must ensure that we develop regulatory
frameworks that do not get out­paced by the rapid advancement of technology. Markets need to be structured
to reward system performance and not favor incumbent interests."
Twitter: @christa_mars Email: cmarshall@eenews.net
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