The New Jersey Board of Public Utilities approved a six-month contract beginning Nov. 1 with Rutgers University to conduct an analysis of energy storage, according to the agency’s Oct. 29 press release. The state enacted legislation in May that sets a target to reach 600 megawatts of storage by 2021 and 2,000 megawatts by 2030. The study will also consider the potential of renewable electric energy storage systems to foster electric vehicle adoption and the potential impact on renewable generation. The report is expected to quantify the benefits and costs of increasing storage and distributed energy resources, and provide recommendations to expand opportunities. The analysis has a proposed budget of $300,000 which will be met by the board’s industry funds.