California Adopts Electricity Storage Procurement Obligation for Retail Suppliers, Utilities

The California PUC adopted a final order setting mandates for load serving entities, including competitive electric service providers, to procure electricity storage resources

The decision establishes that community choice aggregators and electric service providers shall procure energy storage equal to 1 percent of their annual 2020 peak load by 2020 with installation no later than 2024, consistent with the requirements for the utilities.

The decision voted on by the PUC, "acknowledge[s] that the target we set for ESPs and CCAs is slightly lower than the percentage target we have adopted for the IOUs. However, we believe that a lower percentage target is warranted since all customers, including those of ESPs and CCAs, will be required to pay certain non-bypassable charges that may be used by the IOUs to develop energy storage systems."

ESPs and CCAs may meet their procurement requirement in any configuration or use-case category they choose that is relevant to their customer. The PUC will allow customer-sited or customer-owned energy storage to count towards the 1% target. These projects, however, will only be counted if they are installed after January 1, 2010.

The PUC established an aggregate energy storage obligation of 1,325 megawatts for Pacific Gas and Electric, Southern California Edison, and San Diego Gas & Electric by 2020, with installations required no later than the end of 2024.

Docket #: R.10-12-007