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23 HARTFORDBUSINESS.COM | SEPTEBER 20, 2021 Business incentives available for energy storage programs By Zachary Vasile zvasile@hartfordbusines.com T he Public Utilities Regulatory Authority in July established a nine- year energy storage program for all residential, commercial and industrial users, designed to incentivize customers to set up their own storage devices and pool resources with the broader grid when needed. Average upfront incentives for residential customers will start around $250 per kilowatt- hour, with a maximum incentive of $7,500 per energy storage project. Commercial and industrial customers will be eligible for a maximum incentive of 50% of a project's cost. All customers will be eligible for performance incentive payments based on how much power their energy assets contribute to the grid during especially critical periods. Additional benefits will be made available to users who would most benefit from stepped-up resilience measures, including low-income customers, ratepayers in underserved communities, small businesses and customers who historically experience the longest or most frequent power outages during storms. Wittmann Battenfeld, Torrington, CT Napoli Retail, Southington, CT Nufern, East Granby, CT Windsor Marketing Group (WMG), Suffield, CT The Belknap White Group, Hartford, CT Since 1942, The Single Source Construction Firm Since 1942, our goal has been simple: To provide our clients with complete design, planning and construction services for commercial, industrial and retail buildings. Based on years of experience, we're price competitive and offer high quality. When the strictest attention to detail is critical to your success, you can always count on Borghesi to deliver. From concept to occupancy, Borghesi is your single source. AKDO, Bridgeport, CT Stevens Manufacturing, Milford, CT Building Ideas That Work … www.borghesibuilding.com Wittmann Battenfeld, Torrington, CT Napoli Retail, Southington, CT Nufern, East Granby, CT Windsor Marketing Group (WMG), Suffield, CT The Belknap White Group, Hartford, CT Since 1942, The Single Source Construction Firm Since 1942, our goal has been simple: To provide our clients with complete design, planning and construction services for commercial, industrial and retail buildings. Based on years of experience, we're price competitive and offer high quality. When the strictest attention to detail is critical to your success, you can always count on Borghesi to deliver. From concept to occupancy, Borghesi is your single source. AKDO, Bridgeport, CT Stevens Manufacturing, Milford, CT Building Ideas That Work … www.borghesibuilding.com Nufern, East Granby, CT Windsor Marketing Group (WMG), Suffield, CT The Belknap White Group, Hartford, CT 1942, The Single Source Construction Firm Since 1942, our goal has been simple: To provide our clients with complete design, planning and construction services for commercial, industrial and retail buildings. Based on years of experience, we're price competitive and offer high quality. When the strictest attention to detail is critical to your success, you can always count on Borghesi to deliver. From concept to occupancy, Borghesi is your single source. Stevens Manufacturing, Milford, CT Building Ideas That Work … www.borghesibuilding.com © 2011 BlueScope Buildings North America, Inc. All rights reserved. Butler Manufacturing™ is a division of BlueScope Buildings North America, Inc. 2155 East Main Street • Torrington, Connecticut 06790 Wittmann Battenfeld, Torrington, CT Napoli Retail, Southington, CT Nufern, East Granby, CT Windsor Marketing Group (WMG), Suffield, CT The Belknap White Group, Hartford, CT Since 1942, The Single Source Construction Firm Since 1942, our goal has been simple: To provide our clients with complete design, planning and construction services for commercial, industrial and retail buildings. Based on years of experience, we're price competitive and offer high quality. When the strictest attention to detail is critical to your success, you can always count on Borghesi to deliver. From concept to occupancy, Borghesi is your single source. Contact us at 860-482-7613 or visit us on the web. AKDO, Bridgeport, CT Stevens Manufacturing, Milford, CT Building Ideas That Work … www.borghesibuilding.com © 2011 BlueScope Buildings North America, Inc. All rights reserved. Butler Manufacturing™ is a division of BlueScope Buildings North America, Inc. 2155 East Main Street • Torrington, Connecticut 06790 Wittmann Battenfeld, Torrington, CT Napoli Retail, Southington, CT Nufern, East Granby, CT Windsor Marketing Group (WMG), Suffield, CT The Belknap White Group, Hartford, CT Since 1942, The Single Source Construction Firm Since 1942, our goal has been simple: To provide our clients with complete design, planning and construction services for commercial, industrial and retail buildings. Based on years of experience, we're price competitive and offer high quality. When the strictest attention to detail is critical to your success, you can always count on Borghesi to deliver. From concept to occupancy, Borghesi is your single source. Contact us at 860-482-7613 or visit us on the web. AKDO, Bridgeport, CT Stevens Manufacturing, Milford, CT Building Ideas That Work … Wittmann Battenfeld, Torrington, CT Napoli Retail, Southington, CT Nufern, East Granby, CT Windsor Marketing Group (WMG), Suffield, CT The Belknap White Group, Hartford, CT Since 1942, our goal simple: To provide our complete design, planning construction services industrial and retail on years of experience, competitive and offer When the strictest attention is critical to your success, always count on Borghesi From concept to occupancy, is your single source. AKDO, Bridgeport, CT Stevens Manufacturing, Milford, CT Building Ideas That Work … Wittmann Battenfeld, Torrington, CT Napoli Retail, Southington, CT Nufern, East Granby, CT Windsor Marketing Group (WMG), Suffield, CT The Belknap White Group, Hartford, CT Since 1942, The Single Source Construction Firm Since 1942, our goal has been simple: To provide our clients with complete design, planning and construction services for commercial, industrial and retail buildings. Based on years of experience, we're price competitive and offer high quality. When the strictest attention to detail is critical to your success, you can always count on Borghesi to deliver. From concept to occupancy, Borghesi is your single source. AKDO, Bridgeport, CT Stevens Manufacturing, Milford, CT Building Ideas That Work … Wittmann Battenfeld, Torrington, CT Napoli Retail, Southington, CT Nufern, East Granby, CT Windsor Marketing Group (WMG), Suffield, CT The Belknap White Group, Hartford, CT Since 1942, our goal has been simple: To provide our clients with complete design, planning and construction services for commercial, industrial and retail buildings. Based on years of experience, we're price competitive and offer high quality. When the strictest attention to detail is critical to your success, you can always count on Borghesi to deliver. From concept to occupancy, Borghesi is your single source. AKDO, Bridgeport, CT Stevens Manufacturing, Milford, CT Building Ideas That Work … tracks was set up specifically to study whether the state is capturing the full benefits of the clean power purchase agreements it's entered into. "We're making sure that the money that's being put in is delivering the return on investment," she said. Fully realizing the benefits of renewables, she added, will require changes in the way electric distribution companies approach long-standing obstacles. "I always fall back to the example of vegetation management, which is a hot-button issue in this state," Gillett said. "Do we want to put $400 million into trimming trees that have to be trimmed every four years, or do we want to split those funds into a combination of strategic undergrounding, [improved power distribution technology], things like that? We use some [of the money] on vegetation management, but you've also put money into something that has a longer life with undergrounding." Nimbler approach Several tracks within PURA's grid modernization effort focus on, or at least touch on, ways in which the grid, and the regulatory environment surrounding it, can be made more responsive to customers' needs. This includes greater adoption of power storage devices, allowing customers to continue to run some parts of their household or businesses when storms knock down power lines, and possibly the development of microgrids, which could power private companies such as grocery stores and gas stations independently, at least for a time. "Through all these different programs we're standing up, we're trying to send signals to customers," Gillett said. "Deploy storage. Deploy storage plus solar. And we're trying to send the same signals to the utilities about shoring up different parts of their grid." The mission has required nimbler thinking and a willingness to move, as Connecticut Green Bank CEO Brian Garcia put it, "at the speed of business." The Green Bank is administering the grid modernization plan's battery storage program, and will have a hand in other tracks as well. Garcia said the program is impressive in its scale — it aims to have no less than 90% of vulnerable communities participate — and much needed if regulators are to tackle the problems confronting customers. He gave particular credit to the agency for working to involve ratepayers, businesses, advocacy groups and other parties that might have been overlooked in proceedings years ago. "PURA has created a space for stakeholders to engage and come to the table," Garcia said. Gillett, who previously served in Maryland's equivalent of PURA, is cognizant of the cultural shift she's overseen, which includes efforts to break down the image of regulatory agencies as "black boxes" little understood by the broader public. PURA officials acknowledged their efforts will at times run up against the utilities' established way of doing business, and regulators will sometimes have to work around those issues when they don't fall directly within their purview. "It's an industry that has a lot of inertia," Gillett said. "Even where things have long existed as strategies. Undergrounding [or burying power lines below the ground] has been a strategy for decades at this point, and yet in Connecticut we don't mandate new developments be underground." Still, regulators have been heartened by the broader interest in their work since Tropical Storm Isaias hit the state in Aug. 2020, and by the attendant rise in public participation at meetings. "It's only possible to have the best outcome for ratepayers if we have as many people involved giving us good ideas and helping us refine those ideas," Ryor said. "So everyone benefits from greater participation throughout all of our processes."