Nevada’s Senate has passed a bill requiring the Public Utilities Commission to consider establishing energy-storage targets for electric utilities. Specifically, S.B. 204 requires the PUC to investigate and determine, by October 1, 2018, whether it is in the public interest to establish biennial targets for electric utilities to procure energy-storage systems. Notably, the term “requirements” contained in the original version of the bill has been revised to “targets.”

S.B. 204 requires the PUC to consider whether storage systems will achieve certain purposes, including:

• Integrating intermittent renewables into the utility’s transmission and distribution grid.
• Improving grid reliability.
• Expanding the deployment of renewables.
• The avoidance or deferral of utility investment in the generation, transmission and distribution of electricity.
• Reducing peak demand.
• The replacement of ancillary services provided by facilities using fossil fuels with ancillary services provided by storage facilities.
• Reducing greenhouse-gas emissions.
• The interconnection of storage systems at each point of the grid, including electricity transmission and distribution, and at a customer’s site.

Storage systems may be centralized or distributed, and may be owned by utilities or non-utilities.