Governor of Rhode Island, Daniel McKee has signed the 2024 Energy Storage Systems Act into law to achieve a 100% clean energy future.
“Energy storage is flexible, reliable, affordable, and will be a game changer for Rhode Island’s power grid,” said Rhode Island State Lead Kat Burnham of national business association Advanced Energy United. “Investing in energy storage technologies will drive economic development and job creation in the clean energy sector.”
The electricity system is going through a transition to clean energy in Rhode Island and across New England. While flexible resources like storage are essential to deploy more renewable energy and meet future reliability requirements, energy storage is a mature technology to help reduce strain on the electric grid and create opportunities for ratepayer savings.
Some important features of the Act are as follows:
· Storage Targets: Rhode Island sets goals of 90 MW of energy storage by 2026, 195 MW by 2028, and 600 MW by 2033.
· Infrastructure Programs: The Rhode Island Infrastructure Bank will develop programs to facilitate energy storage adoption across all sectors.
· Storage Procurements: Enables the RI Public Utility Commission to require distribution companies to procure cost-effective storage systems.
Policymakers are delivering on their commitments to grow Rhode Island’s clean economy and reduce greenhouse gas emissions by signing the Energy Storage Systems Act (Senate Bill 2499 and House Bill 7811).
