Dive Brief:
- Existing energy storage resources, combined with stand-alone energy storage projects and storage paired with generation projects in the ISO New England interconnection queue, should together result in Maine meeting its short-term energy storage goal, according to a report the state’s Public Utilities Commission released earlier this month.
- A state law requires Maine to have 300 MW of energy storage capacity by 2025 and 400 MW by 2030.
- The added storage capacity will make the power grid more resilient and help deliver more renewable energy to customers, said Phil Bartlett, chair of the Maine Public Utilities Commission.
Dive Insight:
Six energy storage facilities currently connected to the grid provide Maine with 63 MW of energy storage capacity, according to the March 13 Maine PUC report. The largest are a 20.9 MW facility in the town of Millinocket and a 16.7 MW project in the town of Yarmouth.
Four stand-alone projects in ISO New England’s interconnection queue add up to 215 MW in energy storage, according to the commission’s report. The largest is a 175 MW facility in the town of Gorham.
The interconnection queue also has 799 MW of projects that include battery storage, but the report says it cannot determine how much of the energy included in those projects comes from batteries.
The report does not say when the projects will be connected to the grid, but if all four standalone projects are connected this year, the state will achieve its goal of reaching 300 MW in battery storage by 2025.“The sums of these queues demonstrate planned private investment in energy storage that exceeds the amounts set for” in state law, the report says.
Added storage benefits Maine in several ways, Bartlett said.
According to the U.S. Energy Information Administration, 64% of the power generated in Maine came from renewables in 2022. The biggest chunk, 23%, is generated by wind power. The same state law that set its energy storage goals also requires the state to receive 80% of its power from clean sources by 2030. Energy storage allows the state to capture energy that intermittent resources like wind and solar produce when they are generating, which might not coincide with demand.
"It's important that we are able to spread out the hours we can benefit from renewable resources," Bartlett said.
Added storage "also helps with other issues, like congestion,” Bartlett said.
For example, if wind turbines or solar panels are producing more power than customers are using, the excess energy can be stored and used in times of peak demand so the power supply meets customers’ needs, he said.
