(Disclosure: Rose Law Group represented a party on this issue in front of the ACC.)
By Emma Penrod | Utility Dive
Dive Brief:
- The Arizona Corporation Commission last month approved the state’s first residential battery storage program — an incentive pilot proposed in August by the Arizona Public Service Company. Around the same time, Green Mountain Power (GMP) said its growing network of stored energy in Vermont, including home batteries and other resources, has reduced customer costs by about $3 million so far in 2020.
- The Arizona pilot will offer incentives of $500 per kilowatt of installed storage, up to $2,500, with the intent of encouraging Arizona residents to purchase and install energy storage, according to ACC commissioner Lea Márquez Peterson. The budget and size of the pilot remains to be determined.
Arizona has several hundred thousand households with rooftop solar, according to Court Rich, vice president of the Arizona Solar Energy Industries Association, but residential storage installations have not yet caught up, with few residents choosing to install batteries even if paired with a new rooftop system. If Arizona could change that, storage stands to spur job growth and associated economic returns, he said.
“If you look at the economic impact and jobs created in the rooftop solar industry and compare this to that, you can expect similar benefits to the state,” he said.
