Staff of the New Jersey Board of Public Utilities (“BPU” or “Board”) hereby gives notice of a virtual stakeholder meeting to present the New Jersey Energy Storage Incentive Program (“NJ SIP”) 2024 Straw Proposal (“Straw”) and associated draft rules. This 2024 Straw Proposal builds on the BPU’s September 29, 2022, NJ SIP Straw Proposal to reflect stakeholder input solicited by the BPU via a Request for Information (“RFI”), which was issued by the BPU under Docket No. QO22080540 on August 8, 2023, as well as analysis and modeling performed by Staff’s consultant over the past year.

The State of New Jersey has one of the most ambitious storage targets in the nation, with a statutory mandate to achieve 2,000 megawatts (“MW”) of installed energy storage by 2030. Energy storage resources are critical to increasing the resilience of New Jersey’s electric grid, reducing carbon emissions, and enabling New Jersey’s transition to 100% clean energy. The NJ SIP described in this Straw will build a critical foundation for a long-term energy storage effort in the State.

In this Straw Proposal, Board Staff proposes to create two energy storage programs for Front-of-Meter and Behind the-Meter energy storage incentives, patterned after the Board’s Successor Solar Incentive (“SuSI”) Program. However, while the SuSI Program incentivizes stand-alone solar and Grid Supply solar-plus-storage projects, this Straw will focus on incentivizing stand-alone Grid Supply energy storage projects as well as solar-plus-storage projects that are ineligible to receive incentives from the SuSI Program.  Incentives will not be retroactive. Only energy storage projects placed into service after the date of the Board Order establishing this program will be eligible for incentives.

The stakeholder meeting will be held on the following date and time, and in the following manner:

Board Staff will host the stakeholder meeting. Please note that the meeting will be conducted via Zoom. You must register for the meeting to attend, using the link provided above. Stakeholders and members of the public are invited to participate and may express their views. To encourage full participation, please submit any requests for needed accommodations, such as interpreters and/or listening assistance, 48 hours prior to the above meeting to the Board Secretary at board.secretary@bpu.nj.gov. If you want to reserve a speaking opportunity, please register at least 48 hours before the start of the meeting and indicate your request to speak during the online registration process. After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the meeting and information about checking your system requirements in advance of the meeting. Please check access and devices in advance of the meeting to ensure that they will properly connect. The webinar may be recorded, and both the presentation and any recording will be made available on this page at the conclusion of the webinar.

Questions on this stakeholder process may be directed to energy.storage@bpu.nj.gov.

All public comments should be filed under Docket No. QO22080540. The deadline for written public comments on this matter is 5:00 p.m. EST on Wednesday, December 18, 2024. Please submit comments directly to the specific docket listed above using the “Post Comments” button on the Board’s Public Document Search tool. Comments are considered “government records” for purposes of the State’s Open Public Records Act and any confidential information should be submitted in accordance with the procedures set forth in N.J.A.C. 14:1-12.3.

Written comments may also be submitted to:

Sherri L. Golden
Secretary of the Board
44 South Clinton Ave.,
1st Floor
PO Box 350
Trenton, NJ 08625-0350
Phone: 609-292-1599
Email: board.secretary@bpu.nj.gov

The New Jersey Board of Public Utilities (“BPU” or “Board”) hereby gives notice of a series of virtual stakeholder meetings to discuss the New Jersey Energy Storage Incentive Program (“NJ SIP”) Straw Proposal (“Straw”) attached to this Notice.

The State of New Jersey has one of the most ambitious storage targets in the nation, with a statutory mandate to achieve 2,000 megawatts (“MW”) of installed energy storage by 2030. Energy storage resources are critical to increasing the resilience of New Jersey’s electric grid, reducing carbon emissions, and enabling New Jersey’s transition to 100% clean energy. The NJ SIP described in this Straw will build a critical foundation for a long-term energy storage effort in the State.

In this Straw, Board Staff proposes to create two energy storage programs for Front-of-Meter and Behindthe-Meter energy storage incentives, both patterned after the solar-plus-storage program proposed in the Board’s Competitive Solar Incentive (“CSI”) Program.2 However, while the CSI Program is designed to incentivize solar-plus-storage projects, this Straw will focus on incentivizing stand-alone energy storage devices physically connected to a New Jersey electric distribution company (“EDC”). Staff proposes to apply the incentives only to energy storage projects placed into service after the effective date of the Board Order establishing this program would qualify for incentives.

The stakeholder meetings will be held at the following dates and times, and in the following manner:

Held Via Webinar
Please note that these meetings will be conducted virtually. You must register for the meeting before attending. Please register for any or all of the sessions at least 48 hours prior to the scheduled date. If you want to reserve a speaking opportunity, please designate this during the online registration process. After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the meeting and information about checking your system requirements in advance of the meeting. Stakeholders should check their access devices in advance of the meeting to ensure that they will properly connect.

All public comments should be filed under Docket No. QO22080540. The deadline for written public comments is 5 p.m. EST on Monday, December 12, 2022. Please submit comments directly to the specific docket listed above using the “Post Comments” button on the Board’s Public Document Search tool. Comments are considered “public documents” for purposes of the State’s Open Public Records Act and any confidential information should be submitted in accordance with the procedures set forth in N.J.A.C. 14:1-12.3.

Written comments may also be submitted to:
Acting Secretary of the Board
44 South Clinton Ave.,
1st Floor
PO Box 350
Trenton, NJ 08625-0350
Phone: 609-913-6241
Email: board.secretary@bpu.nj.gov