Improving the economics of battery storage for industrial customers: Are incentives enough to increase adoption?

Abstract

As adoption of behind-the-meter battery energy storage increases across the United States, implementation continues to lag in the industrial sector. This analysis considers two manufacturing facilities with potential for load shifting to reduce peak demand. Although both facilities have load profiles that demonstrate great potential for regular and programmed demand reduction during peak hours, battery energy storage was deemed prohibitively expensive. A review of several existing utility and state-level policies and incentives determined that few may be rightsized for the industrial customer class. This analysis further considers multiple incentive structures and finds that although incentives increase viability of energy storage, developers must also consider optimization, unique load profiles, and use case to effectively increase adoption of battery energy storage by industrial customers.