As higher electricity rates took effect Monday in Pennsylvania, state lawmakers heard broader deployment of battery storage technology could help improve the stability of the region’s power grid and lower the price of power.
A part of daily life, batteries power smartphones, cars, toys and an endless list of electronic devices. But large-scale battery storage is a relatively new element of the power grid that lights homes and businesses and keeps industry humming.
“Battery storage is no longer an emerging technology,” Chris D’Agnostino, the head of state policy for the renewable energy industry group Advanced Energy United. “It’s a proven grid resource that can help address some of Pennsylvania’s most pressing energy challenges.”
He and other experts testified before the state House Energy committee that grid-scale battery storage helps optimize energy efficiency by storing electricity from sources including wind, solar, hydroelectric and traditional thermal power plants and then releasing it when it’s needed.
But the commonwealth ranks 28th in the nation in battery storage capacity, committee Chairperson Elizabeth Fiedler (D-Philadelphia) said.
“I would like us to move up in those rankings quite a bit,” she said in the hearing on legislation that would mandate the state’s largest electric utilities to install 3,000 megawatts of battery storage by 2033.
House Bill 2380, introduced by Rep. Nikki Rivera (D-Lancaster) would put the Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission (PUC) in charge of assigning shares of the 3,000 megawatts based on the service load and annual peak demand of each electric company with more than 600,000 customers.
Witnesses agreed increased battery storage would improve affordability, reliability and the grid’s ability to meet growing demand from increased electrification of transportation, industry and data centers to power artificial intelligence.
But an electricity industry representative said the question before the panel was not whether batteries will play a larger role in the commonwealth’s future energy supply, but whether the legislation is good policy.
Andy Tubbs, president and CEO of the Energy Association of Pennsylvania, said setting hard mandates for electricity companies without basing the figures on pilot programs or system reliability standards is a mistake.
“The acquisition targets would be more understandable if we had better footing … where these targets are stemming from,” Tubbs said.
Pennsylvania is part of the PJM Interconnection grid, which manages wholesale electricity markets for 13 states and Washington, D.C. The organization holds auctions to ensure there’s an adequate supply of electricity.
Over the last two years, prices have increased sharply as plans for hyperscale data centers fueled unprecedented rises in the demand forecast. Gov. Josh Shapiro’s office sued PJM in late 2024 and reached a settlement establishing a price ceiling for the auctions that has now been extended twice under pressure from PJM state governors and the Trump administration.
But for the second summer in a row, consumers will see the impact of the wholesale price increase in their electricity bills. According to the PUC, customers of 11 electricity distribution companies will see rate hikes this month, with most increasing between 1.5% and nearly 20%.
Under Pennsylvania’s deregulated electricity market, local electricity companies may no longer own power plants or other generating assets. But the PUC has determined that battery storage facilities are a “non-wire” distribution asset that can improve reliability by eliminating congestion on the grid, Commission Chairman Stephen DeFrank said.
And because storage battery systems can improve the grid’s resilience at a lower cost than building new transmission lines, the investment is easier for local utilities to justify to the commission, DeFrank added.
Since issuing a policy statement on battery storage, the state has seen little significant investment in the technology, he noted. PPL has two battery storage facilities, while Duquesne Light operated a two-year pilot program. UGI Electric also had a pilot approved but did not pursue it due to cost issues.
“With this background, it is prudent for this committee to consider means to spur investment in energy storage as a distribution and transmission asset,” DeFrank said, but added the mandate to install 3,000 megawatts of storage, ”may be overly aggressive and potentially unachievable when required to meet cost benefit tests.”
Battery storage is most common in “behind the meter” applications, where homeowners or business owners install battery banks to capture solar electricity for later use or to feed into the grid to offset their bills.
Grid-scale battery storage is “in front of the meter,” meaning that it feeds directly into the electricity grid to serve all customers, Michelle Buczkowski, CEO of storage battery maker EOS Energy Enterprises, said.
H.B. 2380 divides the 3,000 megawatts utilities would be required to install into 2,000 megawatts of short duration storage, which can feed into the grid for up to four hours. They would also install 1,000 megawatts of long term storage, which lasts 10 hours or more.
Buczkowski said short duration storage excels at meeting hourly fluctuations in demand, but lacks the ability to deliver sustained energy needed to meet extended increases in demand, such as severe weather events or greater industrial demand.
She noted that giving utilities more flexibility to install long-duration storage systems could further improve reliability and lower costs for consumers.
Extended duration events, such the arctic cold that affected most of the country in February, are the greatest threat to grid reliability, said Mark Thompson, senior director of state affairs for Form Energy. The company manufactures multi-day batteries with 100 hours of storage capacity.
“Multi-day storage can store massive amounts of energy from periods of abundance and low cost, and then dispatch that when needed,” Thompson said.
He drew comparisons to the electricity grid and other utilities such as water and natural gas, which benefit from massive long-term storage capacity in reservoirs and tanks.
“This kind of long duration energy storage is not available on the electric grid. We have seen on those other systems that it tends to make their systems very reliable and much lower cost,” Thompson said, adding that it would help the electricity grid weather variations and increased load. “The system’s calling out for the ability to store power over extended time periods.”
