News•Feb 10, 2026
The BESS Deployment Gap: Structural Barriers in Eastern U.S. Markets
Battery Energy Storage System (BESS) deployment in the United States is heavily skewed toward California and Texas, where utility‑scale storage now exceeds 20 GW. Eastern RTOs such as PJM, MISO and SPP lag behind, not because of technology limits but due to restrictive market rules, interconnection bottlenecks, and outdated capacity accreditation methods. The report shows that while batteries can be commissioned in 6‑12 months, Eastern regulatory frameworks blunt that speed‑to‑power advantage. Without reforms, roughly half the nation’s grid will miss the reliability and cost benefits of large‑scale storage.
