Washington Utilities and Transportation Commission issues policy statement to advance energy storage

The Washington Utilities and Transportation Commission (UTC) issued a formal policy statement Wednesday regarding how the state’s investor-owned electric utility companies should include energy storage in their Integrated Resource Plans (IRP).

The policy statement establishes a framework to guide the UTC’s ongoing rulemaking for integrated resource plans (IRPs), which utilities file with the commission every two years to identify energy supply and demand expectations for the following 20 years.

“Energy storage is a key enabling technology for utilities to accomplish the goals of the state’s energy policies,” the UTC said in the policy statement. “Washington’s investor-owned utilities should be working diligently to identify and pursue cost-effective opportunities to incorporate energy storage into their systems.”

The statement creates an expectation that utilities will demonstrate reasonable consideration of energy storage options in their IRPs, including cost and benefit analyses. It also encourages companies to use more detailed planning models and publicly available energy storage modeling tools, such as those provided by U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) laboratories.

The statement also said that the UTC’s regulation of energy storage investments will follow the same principles used for all other utility investments.

The UTC will develop specific language to guide utilities in their energy storage evaluation and investment in distribution system planning in the ongoing IRP rulemaking.