New England is committed to building an energy future that is as clean, reliable, and affordable as possible. Its member states have set some of the country’s most ambitious emissions reductions targets in the country, with five of six of its member states setting reduction targets of 80% or more by 2050. Achieving these goals, while meeting immediate challenges posed by increasingly extreme weather events, will require the build out of new resources that can support clean electric system operations, without compromising on reliability or security.

The challenges to New England are twofold. First, the region requires clean, dispatchable resources that can balance the rapidly growing amount of intermittent renewables coming onto its grid. Such firm resources will be essential for meeting electricity demand when the output from wind and solar is less than expected for multiple hours and days. Second, the New England grid is particularly vulnerable to winter oil and gas supply shortages, as a result of pipeline transport limits coupled with competing fuel demand to keep homes and businesses warm. There is a near-term need in New England for resources that can reliably deliver energy during periods of high grid stress in the winters.

Energy storage technologies that capture and store energy during times of low demand and discharge when energy is most needed will be key to solving many of these challenges. Specifically, multi-day storage (MDS) is a promising class of energy storage technologies that can continuously discharge stored energy for several days, providing clean electricity when and where it is needed over much longer periods than existing short-duration technologies. Form Energy’s Software & Analytics team recently analyzed New England’s energy system using Formware, our grid modeling tool, to understand what mix of energy storage technologies could best meet the region’s clean energy targets and winter reliability needs.

The findings from this analysis were recently published in a white paper, The Value of Multi-Day Storage in New England, which demonstrate that a diverse portfolio of clean energy resources that includes MDS can bring substantial winter reliability benefits in the near-term, while also supporting the cost-effective achievement of long-term clean energy goals in the region. Three of the study’s key findings were:

1. Deploying 3 GW of MDS in New England by 2030 could avoid winter energy shortages at a cost that is 74% lower than with short-duration storage alone.
2. Pairing sufficient MDS with wind resources could create a source of clean, reliable energy during all times of the year for 80% less cost than could be achieved with short-duration storage alone.
3. Adding 23 GW of MDS to the region’s portfolio by 2050 would avoid the need to build nearly 150 GW of new resources – reducing costs of meeting regional emissions reductions targets by up to 33%, curbing curtailment by 83%, and avoiding impacts to more than 300,000 acres of land.

Form Energy’s modeling indicates that MDS could play an essential role in enabling a reliable, affordable, and clean energy system in New England. But to realize these opportunities, it is essential that the region start deploying these resources as soon as possible. Near-term state policy support will be needed to build the market and smooth the transition for these emerging technologies. Policies that specifically seek to procure or incentivize development of multi-day storage solutions by 2030 will help expedite commercialization and make these promising new resources a reality for New England.

To learn more about these results and further findings from our analysis, please see the full whitepaper, “The Value of Multi-Day Storage in New England,” available at the link here.