August 17, 2021
ESA Recommends Maine PUC Adopt Rate Designs Appropriate for Energy Storage Deployment
ESA, along with the Northeast Clean Energy Council (NECEC) and Maine Renewable Energy Association (MREA), filed joint comments today in response to the Maine Public Utilities Commission’s Notice of Inquiry into rate design issues affecting the deployment of energy storage. The NOI was published in response to the passage of LD 528 in June, which directed the Commission to investigate opportunities to modernize transmission and distribution rate designs and implement a pilot program to test and evaluate time-of-use rates in conjunction with energy storage. ESA, NECEC, and MREA supported the use of cost-of-service rate design principles and recommended time-varying rates for behind-the-meter customers, as well as rate design reform to specifically accommodate front-of-the-meter energy storage systems connected to the distribution system.