Battery storage is growing at an unprecedented rate in the U.S., with utility-scale capacity expected to surge from 7.8 gigawatts (GW) in 2022 to 30 GW by the end of 2025, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration. As adoption accelerates, utilities are under pressure to integrate this transformative technology into their operations. Yet, many remain cautious. Unlike traditional assets like substations or power lines, battery storage projects touch nearly every department within a utility, from planning and operations to IT and regulatory affairs.
This complexity, combined with a need to mitigate risks and justify investments, encourages utilities to take a methodical approach. Leaders from Cobb EMC, Avangrid, and EPRI recently shed light on how utilities are building robust processes and cross-functional teams to navigate the technical, financial, and regulatory hurdles of battery storage adoption during a POWERGRID International webinar.
Establishing robust development processes
Developing energy storage projects requires precision and coordination. Both Cobb EMC and Avangrid emphasized the importance of well-defined processes to guide projects from concept to completion, with EPRI offering tools to support these efforts.
Cobb EMC employs a structured approach to project development, which includes clearly defined stages for discovery, design, and implementation. By starting with a focus on identifying the problem—whether it’s enhancing resiliency, cutting costs, or integrating renewables—the utility tailors each project to meet specific operational and business objectives.
“The discovery phase helps you to define your ‘why’ of the project, in that you’ll be defining the scope of the project, the objectives of the project, and then that will really determine why you want to do this project,” said Manish Murudkar, director of distributed energy resources strategy at Cobb EMC. “Is it really the resiliency issue that you are trying to resolve, or are you trying to lower the cost of your operations? Or is it just clean energy and sustainability goals that you want to achieve through the implementation of this non-wires solution? Once you determine the use case, then the design of the battery and the size of the battery will be determined – once you ordered the battery, you kind of are stuck with that battery for those particular type of use cases.”
Avangrid, meanwhile, is working to standardize its processes to support scalable deployments. The utility has focused on internal education and documentation to ensure that projects can be handed off seamlessly between teams. Battery storage projects require coordination between multiple departments, including planning, operations, regulatory compliance, and safety, making clear workflows essential for alignment.
Additionally, Avangrid has sought to build confidence in energy storage technology through pilot projects. Early deployments served as both testing grounds for the technology and as opportunities to educate internal teams. By embedding storage projects into core utility operations, the company is fostering a culture of innovation and strategic thinking.
“In our case, most of the storage deployments are trying to meet system needs on our distribution system,” said Jim Mader, director of clean energy policy at Avangrid. “So their use case is very important, and in order to prove to our regulators that it makes sense, we typically always have to do some type of business case analysis to show the value of storage.”
EPRI is helping utilities enhance these workflows with tools like the Distributed Energy Resources Value Estimation Tool (DER-VET). This open-source platform allows utilities to calculate and optimize the value of storage projects based on technical constraints, grid requirements, and market pricing. Utilities have used DER-VET for tasks like developing business cases, evaluating project proposals, and determining optimal sizing and siting for storage systems.
“Because it is an open-source tool, it provides transparency on how the tool can be used and how the calculations are being done,” said Erin Minear, EPRI’s Program Manager for Energy Storage. “It has a wide variety. It has the flexibility to model a wide variety of responses, and then it can automate the process so that you can run many different scenarios and different proposals.”
EPRI’s Energy Storage Integration Council (ESIC) also offers resources to support this cultural change. Through collaborative forums and practical tools, ESIC fosters cross-departmental communication, ensuring that storage adoption becomes a cohesive effort across utilities rather than an isolated project.
“ESIC is really intended to gather all the different industry stakeholders, understand what the challenges are, align on terminology and approaches, and share lessons learned,” Minear said.
Scaling storage amid operational and regulatory complexity
For Avangrid, a leading utility operating across the northeastern United States, energy storage is critical to meeting operational needs and state-mandated climate goals. With a target of deploying 6 GW of storage by 2030 in New York alone, the utility is testing solutions through pilot projects designed to address specific grid challenges.
One such project, a 1 MW/4 MWh battery energy storage system in New York, was deployed to alleviate stress on an overloaded transformer. The goal was to defer costly upgrades while increasing hosting capacity for future distributed energy resources. Avangrid has also used tools like DER-VET to evaluate configurations, such as pairing batteries with EV chargers to manage demand surges, providing valuable lessons in optimizing use cases.
“Back in 2018, everyone had heard of storage, but no one really fully understood it,” Mader recollected. “Deploying pilots in advance helped us allow some areas of the company to begin to understand the value of storage. It’s not the answer to everything, but it’s an answer to certain use cases or deployments. And we want to deploy where it makes sense.”
Enhancing safety with EPRI resources
Safety remains a top priority for utilities adopting battery storage. EPRI has developed tools and resources to address this critical concern, including fire prevention guides, quantitative risk assessments, and plume modeling studies. These resources help utilities evaluate site-specific risks and develop emergency response plans tailored to local conditions.
EPRI also maintains a public database of fire incidents, which utilities can use to understand the root causes of failures and refine designs to mitigate risk. Plume modeling studies provide utilities and first responders with detailed insights into potential hazards, guiding evacuation plans and informing protective measures. Industry experts implore safety must be considered at every stage—from planning and procurement to decommissioning.
“We have the database and a root cause paper that looks at ‘Where are the components failing that are leading to these incidents?’ So that helps to inform the discussion,” Minear shared.
Moving toward a scalable future
As the industry scales battery storage deployment, the challenge lies in transforming early successes into repeatable, streamlined processes. Both Avangrid and Cobb EMC are investing in cross-functional teams to internalize key capabilities, reducing reliance on external vendors.
This approach not only builds internal expertise but also positions utilities to achieve long-term cost savings and operational efficiencies. For cooperatives like Cobb EMC, ensuring that projects deliver value to members is a key priority, while larger investor-owned utilities like Avangrid see storage as a tool to meet aggressive climate and capacity goals.
With tools like DER-VET and ESIC paving the way for better planning, utilities are better equipped to scale battery storage deployment safely and cost-effectively. As the industry continues to refine its playbook, those mastering these strategies will shape the future of the grid.
Watch the full webinar here.
Originally published in POWERGRID International.
