Calif. Draft Order Would Require Retail Suppliers to Meet Energy Storage Mandate

A proposed California order would require load serving entities, including retail electric service providers and community choice aggregators in addition to utilities, to meet mandates for the procurement of energy storage.

Specifically, the proposed decision would require electric service providers and CCAs to procure energy storage commensurate with 1% of their annual peak load by 2020, with the storage projects online and delivering no later than the end of 2024.

Unlike with IOUs, the draft would not establish interim targets which must be met by ESPs or CCAs prior to 2020, although the PUC will require periodic updates from ESPs and CCAs prior to 2020, "to assess the progress of ESPs and CCAs towards meeting their procurement target."

Under the draft, ESPs and CCAs, "may choose to procure this amount of storage in any configuration or use-case category they choose that is relevant to their customer base and responsibilities."

"For example, it may not make sense, in most cases, for them to procure distribution-interconnected storage, since they do not manage the distribution grid. However, storage co-located with generation and/or customer-sited storage may be more logical for ESPs and/or CCAs to procure," the draft notes.

All energy storage resources as defined by Pub. Util. Code § 2835(a), except for pumped storage resources 50 MW or greater, would be eligible to meet the storage mandate.

Southern California Edison Company, Pacific Gas and Electric Company, and San Diego Gas & Electric Company would be required to procure 1,325 MW of energy storage by 2020, where MW represents the peak power capacity of the storage resource in terms of the maximum discharge rate.

Rulemaking 10-12-007