Illinois Commerce Commission policy session explores future of energy storage

The Illinois Commerce Commission (ICC) recently held a policy session exploring the future of energy storage and its relationship to the electric grid in Illinois.

Acting Commissioner Anastasia Palivos and ICC staff hosted the session, which included numerous panelists who provided analyses of the energy storage landscape and associated challenges in Illinois.

“If distributed energy resources have a chance at someday replacing fossil fuels, they will most likely be consistent and distributed evenly across our electric grid,” Palivos said in her opening remarks. “An increase in energy storage could not only make the grid more resilient, but it could also have a positive economic impact by lowering the cost of electricity.”

The session included three panels titled An Overview of Energy Storage; Real World Applications & Energy Provider Perspectives; and A Vision of the Future.

A panelist in the third session, Sam Gomberg, senior energy analyst with Union of Concerned Scientists discussed the methods more than 20 states are using to address storage integration and provided recommendations for how to advance deployment in Illinois.

“It was lively and engaging, full of thoughtful analysis and valuable perspectives on the changes coming to the grid,” George Crabtree, director of Joint Center for Energy Storage Research at Argonne National Laboratory, said. “It was wonderful that the Commission brought so many interested parties together for formal panels and informal discussion.”