Thanks to groundwork laid over the past several years, including numerous state regulations, the energy storage market is set for remarkable growth in 2018.

A few of the more recent pieces of evidence that point to this include:

• The Long Beach Water Department (LBWD) announcing a partnership with Advanced Microgrid Solutions (AMS) to build the first advanced energy storage system for the department’s Groundwater Treatment Plant. The 500 kW/3,000 kWh energy storage project will be part of a network of batteries in the Long Beach area that will provide grid services to Southern California Edison, help integrate solar capacity on the grid, reduce greenhouse gasses and provide energy cost savings and operational efficiencies to the City and Water Department.
• In Massachusetts, grants totaling $20 million were recently awarded to 26 projects that will develop the state’s energy storage market. The programs are positioned to deliver benefits to the Massachusetts’s ratepayers and the electrical grid. The awarded projects will benefit 25 communities and draw in $32 million in matching funds, helping to grow the Commonwealth’s energy storage economy.
• Pacific Gas & Electric (PG&E) today announced they will turn to battery storage for energy efficiency. PG&E will turn to EDF Renewable Energy (EDF RE) to secure 40 megawatt hours (MWh) of battery storage capacity. Under the contract, EDF RE will build, own and operate a portfolio of behind-the-meter (BTM) battery storage projects for commercial and industrial customers within the PG&E service territory.
• New York Governor Andrew Cuomo signed a bill to create a statewide energy storage target, making New York the fourth state in the country that will have such a target. The bill to establish an energy storage deployment program was passed unanimously by the legislature five months ago. Cuomo signed it last week. Under the new law, the New York Public Service Commission has until January 1, 2018 to determine a target level for 2030 and decide whether it will be mandatory.

2018 Trends

The above are just a few of the many examples that signal a significant increase in the use of energy storage throughout the US. But what are trends for 2018? According to utilitydive.com, leaders in the space see the aggregation of DERs, a tripling of energy storage deployments and more deployments of solar in coordination with energy storage.

“I expect a jump in utility-scale energy storage deployments in 2018, perhaps on the order of three times 2017 levels, and possibly including some large storage systems that are not based on lithium-ion batteries,” Chris Nelder, manager of electricity practice at Rocky Mountain Institute, said. “By the end of 2018, I expect that grid operators will have gleaned some interesting fresh insights on how utility-scale storage performs.”

Julia Hamm, President of the Smart Electric Power Alliance, said that in 2018 she expects “we’ll see more deployment of solar in coordination with energy storage to build microgrids at facilities and communities not just in Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands, but across the entire country.”

Mark your calendars: The 3rd Annual Environmental Leader & Energy Manager Conference takes place May 15 – 17, 2018 in Denver. Learn more here.