Utilities and storage: Will optimizing on resiliency pull storage back from the edge of the grid?

The critical question is no longer whether storage on the distribution and customer side of the grid is going to fulfil its promise. Rather, our industry needs to begin to shift the debate away from the potential and focus on the longer view questions of ownership and placement of the systems.

Today, storage is beginning to identify itself as a resiliency tool for the grid. Individual states are even starting to create opportunities for the technology to be established in that role and are setting guidelines and precedents for utilities to own it. The window to find the right mix of answers on location will not stay open for long. Market forces and state initiatives are pulling deployment exclusively to the customer side.

In this white paper, ICF explores this critical strategic issue for utilities and suggests steps that they could take to be part of the deployment equation in the future.