The contract with developer First Solar will allow APS to use the battery to deliver solar power when electricity use is at its peak, from 3 p.m. to 8 p.m. each day.
The bill, passed 108-1, would remove all seven regulators by the end of next year and set stricter ethics requirements following the cancellation of the V.C. Summer nuclear plant expansion.
The commission directed grid operators to design rules that allow storage to provide energy, capacity and ancillary services, as well as set wholesale prices as buyers and sellers.
The average South Carolina resident spent $1,753 on electricity in 2016, about $400 more than the U.S. average and nearly twice the average customer in New Mexico, the lowest-expenditure state.
The state has approved rules that increase the ways for energy storage systems to make money, for example, through frequency regulation, capacity or spinning reserve services.
Utilities and distributed energy resource advocates agree the grid needs new technologies to serve 21st century demand, but they differ over what upgrades should come first and what they should cost.
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