On February 1, 2019, the Massachusetts Department of Public
Utilities issued two long-awaited orders in docket D.P.U. 17-146.
The orders address a number of issues related to pairing energy
storage systems ("ESS") with net metering facilities and
the rights to the capacity associated with net metering and SMART facilities. There are too many issues in
these orders to address each fully here, but below are some
high-level highlights.
In the first order, D.P.U. 17-146-A, the Department allowed net
metering facilities to be paired with ESS but limited the
permissible configurations. It allowed configurations where: (1)
the ESS is charged only from the net metering facility and cannot
export to the electrical grid; (2) the ESS is charged only from the
net metering facility but is programmed to allow exports to the
electrical grid; and (3) the ESS is charged from both the net
metering facility and the electrical grid, but cannot export to the
electrical grid.
