Virginia, US, Governor Abigail Spanberger has signed legislation authorising the state to target a total of 20.78GW of energy storage capacity.
HB895, introduced by Richard C. ‘Rip’ Sullivan, Jr, in January, “increases the targets for energy storage capacity that [utilities] Appalachian Power and Dominion Energy Virginia are required to petition the State Corporation Commission (the Commission) for approval to construct, acquire, or procure and extends the time frame by which such capacity must be met.”
SB448 was introduced at the same time as HB895, by Virginia State Senator Lamont Bagby.
Under the bills, Appalachian Power will add 780MW of short-duration energy storage capacity by 2040 and 520MW of long-duration energy storage (LDES) capacity by 2045.
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Dominion Energy will add 16,000MW of short-duration energy storage capacity and 3,480MW of LDES capacity by 2045.
Virginia is located within the PJM service area of the US grid. The state’s energy demands are rising, largely due to a growing number of data centres.
Around the time that the recently signed legislation was introduced, the Trump administration, with a bipartisan group of governors, including US Secretary of Energy Chris Wright and Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum, urged PJM to “temporarily overhaul its market rules to strengthen grid reliability and reduce electricity costs for American families and businesses by building more than US$15 billion of reliable baseload power generation.”
A recent analysis from the American Clean Power Association (ACP), titled ‘The Cost of No New Clean Power in PJM’, found that the average Virginian will spend an additional US$5,200 over the next ten years if no new renewable energy resources are built.
Diane Cherry, deputy director at non-profit advocacy group Mid-Atlantic Renewable Energy Coalition (MAREC Action) noted of Governor Spanberger’s signing House Bill 895 and Senate Bill 448, “Virginia faces growing challenges with electricity affordability and reliability. Energy storage can help by delivering power when it’s needed most.”
Cherry continued, “To do that, we need to expand storage procurement targets — with carveouts for long- and short-duration resources. That will deploy a full range of technologies, meet rising demand, and give developers the predictability to advance projects so they can help ratepayers and communities. We look forward to continued engagement as the Commonwealth advances rulemaking and modernises its energy system.”
Other states within PJM have also taken recent action to boost energy storage installations. Last month, the New Jersey Board of Public Utilities (NJBPU) announced it had approved incentives for three BESS projects totalling 355MW under the first round of the Garden State Energy Storage Programme (GSESP).
A second round of the GSESP was also initiated, inviting bids for an additional 645MW of storage capacity.
