A bill aimed at giving Colorado homeowners the right install electric storage batteries – a first in the nation -received final passage Monday with strong bipartisan support and is one its way to the governor.

Sponsored by Sens. Stephen Fenberg, D-Boulder, and Kevin Priola, R-Henderson, the “Allow Electric Utility Customers Install Energy Storage Equipment” bill passed the House 45-18 after sailing through the Senate 30-5 in February.

Senate Bill 9 directs the Colorado Public Utilities Commission to set rules on the installation, interconnection, and use of “customer-sited distributed electricity storage systems.”

“States allow home storage, but we are the first state in the country to say that people have a right to storage,” Fenberg said.

Priola said there was broad support because the bill “touches both ends of the political spectrum. The left sees it as a new technology that addresses clean energy and climate and the right sees it as individual independence, a backup for snowstorms and blackouts.”

There has been growing interest on the part of homeowners, particularly those who have solar panels, to add storage batteries.  With the entry of companies like Tesla Inc., maker of upscale electric vehicles into the market, home batteries were “becoming trendy like an iPhone,” Fenberg said.

Utilities have responded warily to the trend, requiring extra meters and equipment for some home battery installations.  “I think utilities were trying to figure out how it fit into their business,” Fenberg said. “Some of it was protectionism.”

The sponsors worked with both Xcel Energy and Black Hills Energy, the two investor-owned utilities that would come under PUC regulations, to smooth out details, Priola said. Neither company opposed the legislation.

The legislation directs the utilities commission to set rules to make sure installation of storage is “simple, streamlined, and affordable” and that it does not require the installation of additional meters.

“Colorado is a leader in the transition to clean, renewable energy so this bipartisan bill makes good sense,” said Amelia Myers, an energy advocate for Conservation Colorado.  “By allowing folks who have solar panels on their homes to store the extra energy they generate during the day for use at night, we are giving homeowners energy independence, supporting the use of renewables, and taking one more step toward cleaning our air.”