II 

115TH CONGRESS 

1ST SESSION S. 1876 

To direct the Secretary of Energy to establish a program to advance energy 

storage deployment by reducing the cost of energy storage through research, development, and demonstration, and for other purposes. 

IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES 

SEPTEMBER 27, 2017 

Mr. WYDEN (for himself, Mr. WHITEHOUSE, and Mr. REED) introduced the 

following bill; which was read twice and referred to the Committee on Energy and Natural Resources 

A BILL 

To direct the Secretary of Energy to establish a program 

to advance energy storage deployment by reducing the 

cost of energy storage through research, development, 

and demonstration, and for other purposes. 

1 Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa2 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 

3 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 

4 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Reducing the Cost of 

5 Energy Storage Act of 2017’’. 

6 SEC. 2. DEFINITIONS. 

7 In this Act: 

8 (1) DER.— 


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1 (A) IN GENERAL.—The term ‘‘DER’’ 

2 means an electric device that can produce or 

3 consume energy that is located— 

4 (i) on the distribution system or any 

5 subsystem of the distribution system; or 

6 (ii) behind a customer meter. 

7 (B) INCLUSIONS.—The term ‘‘DER’’ in8 cludes— 

9 (i) an energy storage resource; 

10 (ii) an energy generation technology; 

11 (iii) a demand response resource; 

12 (iv) an energy efficiency resource; 

13 (v) an electric vehicle and associated 

14 supply equipment and systems; and 

15 (vi) aggregations and integrated con16 trol systems, including virtual power 

17 plants, microgrids, and networks of 

18 microgrid cells. 

19 (2) ELECTRIC CONSUMER; STATE REGULATORY

20 AUTHORITY.—The terms ‘‘electric consumer’’ and 

21 ‘‘State regulatory authority’’ have the meanings 

22 given the terms in section 3 of the Public Utility 

23 Regulatory Policies Act of 1978 (16 U.S.C. 2602). 

24 (3) ENERGY STORAGE.—The term ‘‘energy 

25 storage’’ means equipment or facilities capable of 


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1 absorbing energy, storing energy for a period of 

2 time, and dispatching the stored energy, that— 

3 (A) uses mechanical, electrochemical, hy4 droelectric, or thermal processes, as a single fa5 cility or as an aggregation of units, throughout 

6 the electric grid, including behind the meter to 

7 store energy generated at 1 time for use at a 

8 later time; 

9 (B) uses mechanical, electrochemical, hy10 droelectric, or thermal processes, as a single fa11 cility or as an aggregation of units, throughout 

12 the electric grid, including behind the meter to 

13 store energy generated from mechanical proc14 esses that would otherwise be wasted for deliv15 ery at a later time; or 

16 (C) stores thermal energy for direct use for 

17 heating or cooling at a later time in a manner 

18 that avoids the need to use electricity at that 

19 later time. 

20 (4) LIGHT-DUTY CONSUMER VEHICLE.—The 

21 term ‘‘light-duty consumer vehicle’’ has the meaning 

22 given the term ‘‘light-duty vehicle’’ in section 

23 1037.801 of title 40, Code of Federal Regulations 

24 (as in effect on the date of enactment of this Act). 


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1 (5) MICROGRID.—The term ‘‘microgrid’’ means 

2 a localized grid that can disconnect from the tradi3 tional grid to operate autonomously and help miti4 gate grid disturbances to strengthen grid resilience. 

5 (6) PROGRAM.—The term ‘‘program’’ means 

6 the energy storage program established under sec7 tion 3(a). 

8 (7) SECRETARY.—The term ‘‘Secretary’’ means 

9 the Secretary of Energy. 

10 (8) STATE ENERGY OFFICE.—The term ‘‘State 

11 energy office’’ has the meaning given the term in 

12 section 124(a) of the Energy Policy Act of 2005 (42 

13 U.S.C. 15821(a)). 

14 (9) TRANSIT VEHICLE.—The term ‘‘transit ve15 hicle’’ has the meaning given the term ‘‘bus’’ in sec16 tion 1192.3 of title 36, Code of Federal Regulations 

17 (as in effect on the date of enactment of this Act). 

18 SEC. 3. REDUCING THE COST OF ENERGY STORAGE. 

19 (a) ENERGY STORAGE PROGRAM.— 

20 (1) ESTABLISHMENT.—Not later than 1 year 

21 after the date of enactment of this Act, the Sec22 retary shall establish a cross-cutting national pro23 gram within the Department of Energy to advance 

24 energy storage deployment by reducing the cost of 


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1 energy storage through research, development, and 

2 demonstration. 

3 (b) GOALS.—In developing the program, the Sec4 retary shall consider the goals of— 

5 (1)(A) reducing the full lifecycle cost and envi6 ronmental impact of energy storage technologies, 

7 services, and applications, with an emphasis on re8 ducing costs associated with combining energy stor9 age with intermittent renewable energy generation; 

10 and 

11 (B) increasing the cost-competitiveness of en12 ergy storage technologies, services, and applications, 

13 including— 

14 (i) the costs of subsystem components, in15 stallation, and integration; and 

16 (ii) the costs associated with the applica17 tion of energy storage technologies within inte18 grated control systems; 

19 (2) facilitating innovation in the manner in 

20 which energy storage systems are conceived, de21 signed, manufactured, installed, and used for various 

22 energy services; 

23 (3) improving the understanding of the econom24 ics and technical characteristics of new electric grid 


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1 operating principles enabled by energy storage, in2 cluding by considering regional characteristics; 

3 (4)(A) identifying the various use cases that are 

4 possible with energy storage (including individual 

5 technology applications, combination technology ap6 plications, and integrated control system applica7 tions); and 

8 (B) quantifying, demonstrating, and maxi9 mizing— 

10 (i) the value of energy storage in the var11 ious use cases identified under subparagraph 

12 (A); and 

13 (ii) the energy storage services that could 

14 be provided in those various use cases— 

15 (I) individually; and 

16 (II) in multiple or stacked services, in17 cluding the generation of multiple value 

18 streams from integrated control systems, 

19 such as microgrids; 

20 (5) identifying, addressing, and reducing mar21 ket barriers that limit energy storage adoption, in22 cluding by— 

23 (A) identifying wholesale and retail market 

24 barriers; 

25 (B) helping to streamline processes— 


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1 (i) to reduce the time required for 

2 project completion; and 

3 (ii) to lower interconnection costs; and 

4 (C) facilitating increased deployment of en5 ergy storage across sectors, including facili6 tating— 

7 (i) the deployment of residential, com8 mercial, and industrial applications; and 

9 (ii) the deployment to low-income in10 dividuals and communities; 

11 (6) advancing and validating the safety, reli12 ability, and performance of energy storage, including 

13 by— 

14 (A) establishing procedures for evaluating, 

15 verifying, and reporting the performance of en16 ergy storage technologies, including the oper17 ational safety and usable life of energy storage 

18 technologies; and 

19 (B) refining existing or developing new in20 dustry-accepted codes, standards, and testing 

21 procedures to specify desired performance pa22 rameters for energy storage services; 

23 (7) mapping pathways for energy storage de24 ployment that increase the reliability, efficiency, seVerDate Sep 11 2014 02:46 Sep 30, 2017 Jkt 069200 PO 00000 Frm 00007 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S1876.IS S1876

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1 curity, and resilience of the electricity system, in2 cluding by— 

3 (A) increasing the understanding of trends 

4 in electricity system inertia; and 

5 (B) assessing the ability of energy storage 

6 to provide the technical services needed for 

7 management of electricity system inertia; 

8 (8) optimizing energy storage deployment— 

9 (A) to increase the deployment of variable 

10 renewable energy-generation technology and 

11 electric transportation; and 

12 (B) to support the optimal use of distrib13 uted and grid scale energy resources, including 

14 assessing the use of energy storage technologies 

15 to manage and optimize DERs— 

16 (i) at different levels of market pene17 tration; or 

18 (ii) within integrated control systems 

19 or energy management systems, at dif20 ferent scales; 

21 (9) advancing analytical resources to employ 

22 storage technology effectively and profitably, includ23 ing by— 

24 (A) using existing integrated resource 

25 planning, transmission, and distribution design 


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1 tools and other resources to build staff capacity 

2 for State regulatory authorities, State energy 

3 offices, electric utilities, balancing authorities, 

4 and Federal power marketing administrations 

5 to assist in reducing the uncertainty and risks 

6 relating to energy storage deployment; 

7 (B) developing techniques for conducting 

8 energy storage business case analyses; and 

9 (C) developing end-state modeling of least10 cost solutions in scenarios in which— 

11 (i) energy storage is deployed; and 

12 (ii) 90 to 100 percent of electricity is 

13 produced by renewable generation re14 sources; 

15 (10) spurring an increase in the number of en16 ergy storage technologies that are manufactured 

17 cost-competitively in the United States— 

18 (A) through public-private partnerships; 

19 and 

20 (B) by reducing investment risk; 

21 (11) identifying— 

22 (A) critical and conflict materials issues re23 lating to energy storage technologies; and 

24 (B) innovative, low-impact, and cost-com25 petitive methods for procuring energy storage 


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1 materials that address the conflict issues identi2 fied under subparagraph (A), including— 

3 (i) materials recycling programs, 

4 which may also have the effect of increas5 ing the life of batteries; and 

6 (ii) novel methods for obtaining lith7 ium and other minerals domestically; and 

8 (12) enabling responsible lifecycle management 

9 of energy storage technologies through— 

10 (A) conducting research on responsible re11 cycling of advanced battery materials and chem12 istries; 

13 (B) encouraging the sustainable design of 

14 new energy storage technologies; and 

15 (C) investigating end-of-life and second-life 

16 applications for advanced batteries. 

17 (c) PRIORITY.—In developing the program, the Sec18 retary shall pay special attention to energy storage needs 

19 and opportunities that are relatively underdeveloped and 

20 potentially transformative for the electric grid. 

21 (d) SUBPROGRAMS.—The program shall be comprised 

22 of not fewer than 4 subprograms, including— 

23 (1) a large-scale energy storage subprogram 

24 with emphasis on large-scale energy storage systems, 

25 including— 


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1 (A) electrochemical storage; 

2 (B) pumped hydroelectric storage; 

3 (C) mechanical storage; 

4 (D) thermal storage; 

5 (E) compression storage; and 

6 (F) other technologies, as determined by 

7 the Secretary; 

8 (2) a distributed storage subprogram that fo9 cuses on distributed energy storage technologies and 

10 applications, including existing assets and infra11 structure, such as electric hot water heaters and 

12 thermal storage for space heating and cooling; 

13 (3) a transportation electrification subprogram 

14 that focuses on storage for and within electric vehi15 cles, including— 

16 (A) light-, medium-, and heavy-duty pas17 senger, utility, transit, and fleet vehicles; 

18 (B) vehicle-grid integration, including vehi19 cle-to-grid applications and time-varying pricing 

20 signals; and 

21 (C) charging infrastructure and related 

22 networks and systems; and 

23 (4) a responsible battery lifecycle management 

24 subprogram that focuses on— 


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1 (A) recycling spent batteries, including all 

2 chemistries of batteries; and 

3 (B) designing new batteries for end-of-life 

4 recycling. 

5 (e) COST TARGET.— 

6 (1) IN GENERAL.—The Secretary shall develop 

7 cost targets (including technology costs, installation 

8 costs, balance of services costs, and soft costs) for 

9 energy storage across all types of energy storage 

10 technology. 

11 (2) TARGET UPDATE; SUBTARGETS.—Not later 

12 than 5 years after the date of enactment of this Act 

13 and every 5 years thereafter, the Secretary shall— 

14 (A) increase the rigor of cost targets based 

15 on— 

16 (i) a technology-neutral approach that 

17 considers all types of— 

18 (I) energy storage; 

19 (II) application and sector-spe20 cific use profiles; and 

21 (III) energy storage deployment 

22 scenarios, including individual tech23 nologies, technology combination use 

24 profiles, and integrated control system 

25 applications; 


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1 (ii) input from a variety of stake2 holders, including the stakeholders de3 scribed in subsection (i); 

4 (iii) the inclusion and use of existing 

5 infrastructure; and 

6 (iv) the ability to optimize the integra7 tion of intermittent renewable energy gen8 eration technology and DERs; and 

9 (B) establish cost subtargets specific to 

10 technologies and applications selected by the 

11 Secretary, taking into consideration electricity 

12 market prices and what is required to be cost13 competitive in specific markets for electric grid 

14 products and services. 

15 (3) DEFAULT TARGET.—During the period be16 ginning on the date of enactment of this Act and 

17 ending on the date on which the Secretary first in18 creases the rigor of cost targets under paragraph 

19 (2), the default cost targets to be achieved by the 

20 date that is 10 years after the date of enactment of 

21 this Act, shall be an 80-percent reduction in the per 

22 kilowatt hour all-in installed cost of each energy 

23 storage technology class, as determined under para24 graph (4). 


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1 (4) ENERGY STORAGE TECHNOLOGY CLASSI2 FICATIONS.— 

3 (A) IN GENERAL.—Not later than 1 year 

4 after the date of enactment of this Act, the Sec5 retary shall, based on input from the stake6 holders described in subsection (i), establish 

7 categories of energy storage technologies for the 

8 purposes of— 

9 (i) updating the cost targets under 

10 paragraph (2); and 

11 (ii) assigning the default cost target 

12 under paragraph (3). 

13 (B) REQUIREMENTS.—At a minimum, the 

14 Secretary shall establish the following energy 

15 storage technology classes under subparagraph 

16 (A): 

17 (i) Electrochemical storage. 

18 (ii) Pumped hydroelectric storage. 

19 (iii) Mechanical storage. 

20 (iv) Thermal storage. 

21 (v) Compression storage. 

22 (f) SCOPING REPORT.— 

23 (1) IN GENERAL.—Not later than 1 year after 

24 the date of enactment of this Act, the Secretary 


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1 shall submit to Congress a report that includes a 

2 scoping plan for the organization of the program. 

3 (2) PREPARATION OF REPORT.—In preparing 

4 the report under paragraph (1), the Secretary shall 

5 confer with, and seek advice from, public and private 

6 stakeholders, such as the stakeholders described in 

7 subsection (i). 

8 (g) ANNUAL REPORT.—The Secretary shall submit 

9 to Congress an annual report that describes the progress 

10 of the program, including— 

11 (1) a detailed summary of— 

12 (A) actions taken to address each goal list13 ed in subsection (b); and 

14 (B) the outcomes of those actions; 

15 (2) the quantity of energy storage deployed; 

16 (3) the administrative costs of the program; 

17 (4) the total amount of program funds award18 ed, including a description, by State, of the amount 

19 of funds awarded; and 

20 (5) a discussion of the efficacy of the program, 

21 including discussion of the metrics described in sub22 section (h). 

23 (h) METRICS OF SUCCESS.—The Secretary shall de24 velop metrics for evaluating the performance of the proVerDate Sep 11 2014 02:46 Sep 30, 2017 Jkt 069200 PO 00000 Frm 00015 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S1876.IS S1876

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1 gram and the efficacy of the program in achieving the 

2 goals described in subsection (b). 

3 (i) CONSULTATION.—In carrying out the activities 

4 under this section, the Secretary shall consult with stake5 holders, including— 

6 (1) other Federal agencies, including the Fed7 eral Energy Regulatory Commission; 

8 (2) the National Laboratories; 

9 (3) States; 

10 (4) tribal governments; 

11 (5) units of local government; 

12 (6) electric utilities, such as investor-owned 

13 electric utilities, publicly owned electric utilities, and 

14 electric cooperatives; 

15 (7) private companies, including energy tech16 nology manufacturers; 

17 (8) third-party energy service providers; 

18 (9) institutions of higher education; and 

19 (10) nonprofit organizations. 

20 (j) PERSONAL PROTECTIONS FOR SENSITIVE PER21 SONAL DATA.— 

22 (1) PROTECTING PRIVACY AND SECURITY.—In 

23 carrying out this section, the Secretary, the Admin24 istrator of the Energy Information Administration, 

25 and the Secretary of Homeland Security shall idenVerDate Sep 11 2014 02:46 Sep 30, 2017 Jkt 069200 PO 00000 Frm 00016 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S1876.IS S1876

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1 tify, incorporate, and follow best practices for pro2 tecting the privacy of individuals and businesses and 

3 the respective sensitive data of the individuals and 

4 businesses, including by managing privacy risk and 

5 implementing the Fair Information Practice Prin6 ciples of the Federal Trade Commission for the col7 lection, use, disclosure, and retention of individual 

8 electric consumer information in accordance with the 

9 Office of Management and Budget Circular A–130 

10 (or successor circulars). 

11 (2) PERSONAL PROTECTIONS FOR SENSITIVE

12 PERSONAL DATA.— 

13 (A) IN GENERAL.—No Federal entity shall 

14 request the creation, recording, or collection of 

15 data identified to an individual person as a re16 sult of the program. 

17 (B) LAW ENFORCEMENT REQUIRE18 MENTS.—All law enforcement agencies intend19 ing to request access to data regarding elec20 tricity consumption or generation shall be re21 quired— 

22 (i) to produce a probable cause war23 rant as a requirement for gaining access to 

24 the data; and 


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1 (ii) to publicly report on the annual 

2 number of requests by that law enforce3 ment agency for the data. 

4 (k) AUTHORIZATION OF APPROPRIATIONS.—There 

5 are authorized to be appropriated to the Secretary to carry 

6 out this section— 

7 (1) $225,000,000 for fiscal year 2018; 

8 (2) $275,000,000 for fiscal year 2019; 

9 (3) $325,000,000 for fiscal year 2020; 

10 (4) $400,000,000 for fiscal years 2021 through 

11 2024; 

12 (5) $325,000,000 for fiscal year 2025; 

13 (6) $275,000,000 for fiscal year 2026; and 

14 (7) $225,000,000 for fiscal year 2027. 

Æ 


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