The parties participating in the Public Utilities Commission of Nevada’s ongoing investigation into energy-storage have developed and filed a list of interconnection issues and potential next steps. The consensus issues and proposed next steps include:

• Clarifying that energy storage should be treated the same as other generators and therefore should qualify under Nevada’s interconnection rules (Rule 15).
• Developing red-lines to Rule 15 to ensure that utilities have the information needed to properly evaluate energy-storage applications and their impacts on the grid.

The non-consensus issues include:

• Whether Rule 15 should be modified such that if a system will not export, the 15% threshold for simplified interconnection applies.
• Cost allocation for potential upgrades needed to accommodate systems that can charge from the grid.
• The potential eligibility of certain storage configurations (e.g., non-export) for fast-track interconnection.
• Disconnect capability requirements for different storage configurations.
• Advanced inverter and communication and control standards, with a recommendation that the PUC seek comments on standards and protocols.

So far, this investigation has addressed the maturity of battery storage technologies and product commercialization, the costs and benefits of energy storage, energy storage valuation, other states’ efforts to deploy energy storage, electric utility efforts to deploy energy storage, whether energy storage should be integrated into utility resource planning, and potential legislative and regulatory revisions that would eliminate barriers to the storage deployment.