Bay Area CCAs Solicit 30MW of Distributed Batteries to Weather Grid Outages

[mblakele]

Bay Area CCAs Solicit 30MW of Distributed Batteries to Weather Grid Outages

Community-choice aggregators representing three San Francisco Bay Area counties have launched a 30-megawatt behind-the-meter battery solicitation aimed at protecting vulnerable customers and communities from the massive fire-prevention power outages of bankrupt utility Pacific Gas & Electric.

Tuesday’s requests for proposals from East Bay Community Energy (EBCE), Peninsula Clean Energy, Silicon Valley Clean Energy and municipal utility Silicon Valley Power are the latest step taken by state and local authorities to bolster solar-storage systems as a solution to the wildfire and power outage conundrum.

[...]

Tuesday’s solicitation earmarks half of the 30 megawatts of storage for residences, with the rest for multifamily properties and commercial buildings. Partner vendors will be selected early next year, with the goal of getting projects underway in time for the 2020 fire season.​

I'm not sure about the details of this program, but maybe it will work as an extra subsidy or rebate for storage projects.

 

[Ampster]

That is great news. I don't know the details but if any of those CCAs have solar they might have an opportunity to couple that storage with the solar and leverage their investment and provide even greater service to their customers.

 

[Merrill]

This is a good start, California needs to do something to allow the CCA’s to take over a portion of the grid. It would be nice if they could also increase the SGIP to help anyone that lives in a wildfire area with battery backup. Also why can’t the power companies take some of their billions and install the auto shutoff technology on the power lines.

 

[mblakele]

That is great news. I don't know the details but if any of those CCAs have solar they might have an opportunity to couple that storage with the solar and leverage their investment and provide even greater service to their customers.

This particular project seems to be "behind the meter" only. But I know PCE is investing in solar, and I agree that they should add battery storage: each CCA could act like a mini-grid when necessary. Here's a little more from the article:

Tuesday’s joint solicitation is aimed at adding another layer of sophistication to home and business solar-battery systems, by integrating them in a way that allows them to serve as grid resources. Specifically, the CCAs want to aggregate the 30 megawatts of capacity to meet their Resource Adequacy requirements: their share of the resources needed to assure the state grid can remain reliable even during emergencies or times of peak demand.

That’s how East Bay Community Energy, which serves about 550,000 customers in Alameda County, set up this summer’s contract with Sunrun to provide half a megawatt of capacity from aggregated solar-battery systems by 2022. Sunrun plans to use the future Resource Adequacy capacity revenue to reduce the upfront cost of its BrightBox battery systems for East Bay Community Energy (EBCE) customers, centered on the disadvantaged community of West Oakland.​

 

[mblakele]

This is a good start, California needs to do something to allow the CCA’s to take over a portion of the grid. It would be nice if they could also increase the SGIP to help anyone that lives in a wildfire area with battery backup.

There's this related mention from the article:

One example of this is the California Public Utilities Commission’s decision this summer to set aside $100 million in incentives to cover nearly the entire cost of a solar-battery system for disadvantaged or medically vulnerable residents of high-fire-risk regions. The carve-out from the state’s Self-Generation Incentive Program is meant to allow solar installers like Sunrun, Tesla, SunPower and others to seek out customers who’d otherwise be unable to afford such a system.​

 

[Merrill]

There's this related mention from the article:

One example of this is the California Public Utilities Commission’s decision this summer to set aside $100 million in incentives to cover nearly the entire cost of a solar-battery system for disadvantaged or medically vulnerable residents of high-fire-risk regions. The carve-out from the state’s Self-Generation Incentive Program is meant to allow solar installers like Sunrun, Tesla, SunPower and others to seek out customers who’d otherwise be unable to afford such a system.​

So what is affordable, I’m not disadvantaged but can I spend $22,000 for battery storage. Increase the SGIP incentives so more people can have power in a PSPS. Also why do I have to spend any money to subsidize PG&E’s lack of taking care of their infrastructure.

 

[Ampster]

This particular project seems to be "behind the meter" only.

Thanks, I missed that part. I do like the notion of aggregating those resources.

 

[miimura]

They should formalize a Virtual Power Plant system so that battery storage owners can get extra compensation for exporting energy during PDP high demand events too. If there is a tangible and reliable financial payback, it may not require so much up-front subsidies for some customers. However, I do like the subsidies for medically vulnerable customers.