A method for controlling non-volatile storage having individually controllable shield plates between storage elements. The shield plates are formed by depositing a conductive material such as doped polysilicon between storage elements and their associated word lines, and providing contacts for the shield plates. The shield plates reduce electromagnetic coupling between floating gates of the storage elements, and can be used to optimize programming, read and erase operations. The shield plates provide a field induced conductivity between storage elements in a NAND string during a sense operation so that source/drain implants are not needed in the substrate. Alternating high and low voltages are applied to the shield plates, or a common voltage is applied to the shield plates.