Londonderry, NH – January 18, 2019 – Liberty Utilities is very happy to announce they received approval from the New Hampshire Public Utilities Commission to begin a Home Battery Storage Pilot.
“We are very excited to start this program,” said Susan Fleck, President, Liberty Utilities - NH. “The negotiations with all interested parties were incredibly valuable. We think the program will be a big success.”
The approval from the NHPUC requires their review of the customer contract and the communications to explain time-of-use rates. Once that happens, Liberty will begin signing up customers.
The home batteries will help Liberty Utilities reduce its overall demand for electricity during peaks and serve as back-up power for customers during a power outage. Reducing customer demand at peak times will reduce the cost of transmission. This is something all electric customers pay for, not only those participating in the program.
The pilot program is the first of its kind in the United States to combine battery storage with time-of-use rates. Liberty will introduce Mid-Peak, Critical-Peak and Off-Peak pricing. The installed batteries will be charged overnight during Off-Peak times, then that power will be utilized during Critical-Peak times during the day. For customers with solar, the batteries may be charged with solar panels and utilized when the sun isn’t shining. The Off-Peak rate is expected to be a savings of over 10 cents per kWh during the summer months compared to regular residential rates.
The cost to participate in the program is set at $25 per battery, per month. Each customer will be required to use two batteries. The agreement will last for ten years. The installation, service and maintenance will be provided at no additional cost to customers.
Phase One of the pilot will be limited to 200 batteries. Once Phase One is proven successful, the pilot will move to Phase Two, where Liberty will install up to an additional 300 batteries. In addition, once a “Bring-Your-Own-Device” program is defined by a working group, Liberty Utilities customers will also have the option to purchase a home storage battery from another provider. The agreement allows an opportunity for battery aggregators to participate through a competitive bid process to provide an additional 2.5 megawatts of battery capacity, which is equivalent to approximately 500 batteries, to customers who wish to use a third party to purchase their battery storage system.