This bill establishes a new chapter, Chapter 374-I, in the New Hampshire Revised Statutes, creating a Reliability Indexing Credit Pilot Program aimed at procuring reliability indexing credits from qualified energy storage resources. The bill defines key terms such as "energy storage," "qualified energy storage resource," "reliability indexing credit," and "strike price." It outlines a mechanism where payments for reliability indexing credits will be determined based on the difference between a competitively bid strike price and a reference price for each megawatt-hour of capacity. The program allows for the public utilities commission to authorize electric distribution utilities to enter into multi-year agreements with qualified energy storage resources, with the potential to cover up to 200 megawatts of energy storage.

Additionally, the bill mandates the Department of Energy to develop recommended terms and conditions for the pilot program, with an investigation to be completed by December 1, 2025. Following this, the electric distribution utilities are required to petition the public utilities commission for approval to implement the program by February 1, 2026. The bill also includes provisions for cost recovery mechanisms for the utilities involved, contingent upon the agreements being deemed just and reasonable. The act is set to take effect 60 days after its passage, with an estimated fiscal impact indicating potential expenditures exceeding $100,000 for the Department of Energy's investigation.

Statutes affected:
Introduced: 374-I:2