At a glance
- A working group will take input from ratepayers, energy service providers and community choice aggregators, and the plan would be implemented over time as technology allows.
- For third-party capital, the most consequential assignments are the cost-effectiveness method, the role of DER aggregators, and rules for fair and non-discriminatory participation by utility and non-utility providers.
- The order aims to use distributed energy resources to meet local electricity needs, support reliability and reduce or defer infrastructure upgrades, the commission said.
The California Public Utilities Commission gave PG&E, Southern California Edison and San Diego Gas & Electric one year to draft a joint plan for orchestrating distributed energy resources under an October order.
The plan must cover open and interoperable communication, data sharing, cybersecurity, ratepayer protections and customer participation. It must also recognize locational and temporal value and avoid double compensation for DER owners. A working group will take input from ratepayers, energy service providers and community choice aggregators, and the plan would be implemented over time as technology allows.
For third-party capital, the most consequential assignments are the cost-effectiveness method, the role of DER aggregators, and rules for fair and non-discriminatory participation by utility and non-utility providers. Those decisions determine whether an aggregator can stack revenue from a battery or a block of flexible load and still be paid only once, the premise on which most third-party DER business models are underwritten.
The order aims to use distributed energy resources to meet local electricity needs, support reliability and reduce or defer infrastructure upgrades, the commission said.
A separate CPUC order directs the utilities to plan around flexible electric load, including shifting EV charging times and charging or discharging stationary batteries.
PG&E has already cut $2 billion from its capital plan on borrowing costs, as Private Wealth Daily previously reported, making deferral a live question for the largest of the three. Construction-stage load in its data center queue rose to 240 MW.
Reported by the Energy Transition desk from Utility Dive. Published . Corrections