Dive Brief:

• U.S. Senators Martin Heinrich (D-NM) and Angus King (I-ME) last week introduced a bill which would require utilities to hold storage capacity equal to at least 2% of their peak load by the end of 2024.
• The legislation would also set a 2020 interim target of 1%, and allows the goals to me met through virtually any storage technology.
• The Energy Storage Promotion and Deployment Act has little chance of moving ahead as a standalone bill, Greentech Media posits, but similar language could wind up in a larger energy bill, which Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) is attempting to put together.

Dive Insight:

The bill, which would crate the United States' first national storage targets, may have little chance of passing on its own, but Heinrich and King's proposal is a good indication of how far utility-scale storage has come in the national energy conversation. 

"The grid of the future is not a one-way street, but rather an ever-changing, three-dimensional system where electrons are moving in many different directions," Heinrich said in a statement. "Customers are now generators and utility companies have new responsibilities to provide flexibility, reliability, and improved security."

"This bill will demonstrate the United States' leadership in energy technology and grid modernization," Heinrich said.

The proposal is modeled on mandates in California which require Pacific Gas & Electric, Southern California Edison and San Diego Gas & Electric to deploy at least 1,325 MW of storage by the end of 2024.

The bill calls for utilities to hold storage capacity equal to 1% of their peak load by Jan. 1, 2021, as measured over a 1-hour period and averaged over the period of calendar years 2017-2019. By 2025 the target rises to 2%, averaged over 2021-2023.

The bill will help to integrate renewable power and defer investments in additional generation, Sen. King said.

“In the all-important shift towards renewable energy sources, storage is the missing link that can help propel us towards a sustainable and responsible energy future,” King said in a statement. “Storage can make all the difference as we increasingly look to renewables to power our lives, and this bill is the forward-thinking approach we need.”

While it has little chance of passing on its own, it's possible that the storage legislation could be folded into a larger energy bill. Earlier this month, Murkowski called on her colleagues on the Senate Energy & Natural Resources Committee to put forward proposals for a broad, bipartisan energy bill she wants to craft this year, which would be the first such legislation since 2007. She herself introduced 17 bills that week, along with many from her colleagues, including an unprecedented federal distributed energy bill from Sen. King.