Oregon legislation establishes opt-in program for standalone BESS projects

Oregon has started down the path of creating a standard certification pathway for standalone battery energy storage systems (BESS), though new legislation still comes up short according to some.

Governor Tina Kotek signed House Bill 4015 back in March which provides a definition for standalone BESS and an opt-in program similar to the one seen in California under the California Energy Commission (CEC) for utility-scale renewable energy projects, said Todd Cornett, assistant director for energy facility siting at the Oregon Department of Energy (ODE), in an interview with NPM.

He explained that “one of the things everybody recognized is when moving towards more renewable energy,” there is an issue with the timing of getting projects approved as well as the need for more BESS.

“There needs to be much more reliance on battery storage, with the various versions that exist,” he said.

This was defined by HB 4015 in Oregon’s Energy Facility Siting Council (EFSC) statutes, which Cornett said makes “people aware that it is in use.”

Ariel Stavitsky, attorney with Stoel Rives, told NPM that HB 4015 allows standalone BESS developers the option to obtain approval through EFSC’s certification process as opposed to receiving approval through local land use permitting.

Additionally, the bill also allows local jurisdictions to defer approval of standalone BESS projects to EFSC.

Cornett explained that the bill language did not specify any particular circumstance for a local government to defer jurisdiction to EFSC. Rather, he pointed to the bill itself that said, “If a developer of a facility elects, or the governing body of the local government after consulting with the developer elects, to defer regulatory authority to the (EFSC), the developer of a facility shall obtain a site certificate.”

Facilities that fall under the category of the “energy facility” definition include: an electric power generating plant with an average capacity of less than 50 MW produced from a wind facility or within a single energy generation area, associated transmission line, solar facility, and now a BESS.

Prior to the bill, EFSC had jurisdiction to certify BESS associated with other energy facilities such as solar and wind.

Cornett said that EFSC has about 4,800 MW of active battery storage either in operation, construction, or under review, but that all of these BESS projects are co-located with other renewable energy facilities. None, so far, have been standalone.

NPM queue data shows there are roughly 30 GW of applications for pre-operational standalone BESS projects in Oregon of which a majority or 23 GW is in Bonneville Power Administration, while the others are split between Portland General Electric and PacifiCorp territories. Approximately 6.2 GW of this was filed within the last 180 days and none have progressed to an advanced stage.

“The bill puts standalone BESS in that same category, so it’s not EFSC jurisdictional by itself but allows a developer to opt-in or a local government to defer,” he said.

For Stavitsky, she said that the bill does provide additional opportunity for BESS developers but stops short of solving the primary permitting hurdle in Oregon, which is “the piecemeal land use authorization landscape in the state.”

“Absent additional reform to statewide land use authorities, there is no uniform pathway for standalone BESS projects to achieve land use approval even when proceeding under the EFSC process,” she said. “In short, this new legislation could be helpful for BESS developers looking to pursue EFSC certification for projects located in counties with local codes favorable to standalone BESS but does not represent a comprehensive fix.”

The bill is set to go into effect June 6.

“We have some path forward for standalone BESS,” Cornett said. “This was the first effort to go down that direction.”

*This story was originally published exclusively for NPM subscribers in April.

NPM US (New Project Media) is a leading data, intelligence and events company dedicated to providing origination led coverage of the renewable energy market for the development, finance, advisory & corporate community.