Massachusetts Case Study
Andrew Kaplan is a partner at Pierce Atwood in Boston. His practice focuses on providers of energy storage in wholesale and retail markets. Andrew is Chair of the Massachusetts Storage Working Group, commenced on behalf of the Energy Storage Association. He is the former general counsel and chief of staff of the Massachusetts Department of Public Utilities.
Saying energy storage almost universally elicits the response, great idea!
Consumers salivate over the prospect of lower electric bills. Environmentalists rejoice over reducing carbon emissions. Officeholders embrace the less politically risky alternative to asking voters to fund infrastructure patchwork. Entrepreneurs and academics welcome the opportunity to develop new technologies to satisfy society’s energy hunger.
To date, there’s been a collective shrug from political, business and other leaders dismissing the implementation of such a plan as too expensive. This has often derailed meaningful reform in energy usage policy.
Last month, Massachusetts released a two hundred seventy-page report entitled State of Charge. It’s designed to thrust the Commonwealth into the vanguard of the expanding energy storage industry.
Commissioned as part of the Bay State’s ten million-dollar Energy Storage Initiative enacted in May 2015, the report was co-funded by the Massachusetts Clean Energy Center and the Massachusetts Department of Energy Resources. It analyzes the costs and benefits of upgrading the efficiency of Massachusetts’ grid infrastructure. It also offers recommendations for growing the Commonwealth’s energy storage market and industry.