CETA and Grid Storage
What is CETA?
The Clean Energy Transformation Act (CETA), passed by Washington State in 2019, requires the state’s electric utilities to:
- Eliminate coal from their power supply by 2025
- Be greenhouse gas neutral by 2030
- Supply 100% clean electricity by 2045
CETA applies to all investor-owned utilities and consumer-owned utilities serving more than 25,000 customers. Puget Sound Energy (PSE), which serves the Snoqualmie Valley, is subject to all three milestones.
Why storage matters
Wind and solar generation don’t match when people use electricity. Solar peaks midday; demand peaks in the evening. Wind is intermittent. To meet CETA’s requirements without fossil fuel backup, utilities need a way to store clean energy and dispatch it when the grid needs it.
Battery energy storage systems (BESS) fill that gap. They charge when renewables are producing more than the grid needs and discharge during peak demand. Without storage, utilities face two bad options: overbuild generation capacity (expensive, and ratepayers pay for it) or keep fossil fuel peakers running (which violates CETA).
PSE’s situation
PSE’s 2025 Integrated Resource Plan calls for up to 2.3 million annual MWh from clean resources by 2030 and up to 1,755 MW of summer peak capacity by 2029. Meeting those targets requires significant new storage.
PSE ran a voluntary All-Source RFP in July 2024 (UTC Docket UE-240532) and received 98 proposals. The Cascadia Ridge tolling agreement was one result — signed August 22, 2025 and filed with the UTC on September 19, 2025.
Our position
We support grid storage. CETA compliance requires it, and the Mt. Si substation next to the Cascadia Ridge site makes this a logical interconnection point. The question isn’t whether to build storage — it’s what kind of battery to put in it.