California regulators want to steer $100 million in state energy storage incentives to a new class of disadvantaged clients: people living in areas of the state in the highest risk of deadly wildfires.
The California Public Utilities Commission issued a proposed decision last week on the “equity funding ” inside the Self-Generation Incentive Program, the state’s main incentive program for behind-the-meter batteries.
The proposed decision will direct $100 million from SGIP’s equity funding — a set-aside targeted toward low-income, medically endangered, or otherwise disadvantaged residents — to vulnerable families, crucial services facilities, and low-income solar system clients in Tier 3 large fire-threat districts.
These types of clients are far more likely to find value in multi-hour batteries attached to their rooftop solar system compared to normal low-income or elderly California resident who’d qualify for the equity funding. That, together with the capacity to supply critical infrastructure using solar-storage systems, is very likely to make for an attractive target market for solar power and energy storage developers like Sunrun and Tesla.
The proposed decision may possibly be voted on by the CPUC as early as next month. Last year California’s legislature extended the SGIP for five more years and supplied roughly $830 million in funding.
SGIP’therefore equity funding offers higher incentives compared to the mainstream program for behind-the-meter battery installations, from 35 cents to around 50 cents per watt-hour.
While the new proposal would just cover next year’s SGIP funding at the moment, the CPUC plans to consider collecting around $100 million yearly to keep the program moving.
California confronts a years-long public policy obstacle to tackle its increasingly deadly wildfires, fueled by enlarging human development, drier and warmer conditions brought on by climate change, and in certain instances utility power lines like the Pacific Gas & Electric transmission line that began November’s Camp Fire, which killed 85 people and brought an estimated $12 billion in damage.
No time to waste
PG&E’s bankruptcy in the face of tens of billions of dollars of liabilities from fires has state lawmakers. Over the last year, California has laws to strengthen utility security and fire-prevention measures and backstop them against potential wildfire liability-driven bankruptcies.
The CPUC and utilities have radically widened the scope of potential “people security capability shutoff” occasions, or grid de-energizations. Although this is a failsafe approach to reduce electricity lines from beginning fires, it might also leave hundreds to tens of thousands of customers without electricity for an undetermined time.
While PG&E, Southern California Edison and San Diego Gas & Electric have used de-energization sparingly so much this summer, they’t cautioned of the possibility of unplanned outages that could last days or, in extreme circumstances , up to weekly. Theyrsquo;ve also taken steps to prepare and protect clients.
But utility attempts to build energy storage or backup generation for large areas harbor & rsquo out;t moved fast.
PG&E’s plan to get a pilot “resiliency zone,” a neighborhood center adapted to host a mobile generator, has been delayed this summer because of allowing challenges. And SDG&E’therefore plan to build three battery-backed microgrids having a collective power of approximately 60 megawatts is below CPUC inspection to determine whether the projects ought to be opened into third-party contest.
Other choices on the table
Directing $100 million from SGIP to high fire-risk areas signifies a more market-driven strategy than utility-led projects.
It wasn’t the one that is only proposed to the CPUC, however. PG&E along with Southern California Edison, by way of example, suggested an SGIP “resiliency adder” for clients at Tier 3 fire risk places. Solar and storage programmer Sunrun was advocating for directing SGIP funds to fire-prone places for decades.
Other thoughts for how to expand state programs to support wildfire prevention and resiliency are emerging within the CPUC’s Distribution Resources Plan moving, which will be creating an arrangement for distributed energy resources (DERs) to perform a part in California utilities’ multi-billion dollar yearly supply grid investments.
Included in this proceedings, Solar Energy Industries Association and Vote Solar, two business groups, have suggested a “DER tariff” to boost solar-storage development in areas with the greatest marginal supply grid expenses, which happen to coincide in several cases using its greatest fire risk places.
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