Tag Archive for: grid

CAISO board approved a proposal to revamp the grid operator’s interconnection process, aiming to clear out a massive queue.

CAISO board approves ‘transformational’ grid interconnection reforms

The California Independent System Operator board on Wednesday approved a proposal to revamp the grid operator’s interconnection process, aiming to clear out a massive queue by favoring projects that it believes are most likely to succeed.

Under what it calls the “transformational reforms,” which federal regulators must approve, CAISO will assess three criteria — commercial interest, project viability and system need — when determining whether a project should move into the interconnection study phase, according to a CAISO staff memo to its board.

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Source: Utility Dive

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The FERC approved the biggest changes in more than a decade to the way U.S. power lines are planned and funded.

New rules to overhaul electric grids could boost wind and solar power

ederal regulators on Monday approved sweeping changes to how America’s electric grids are planned and funded, in a move that supporters hope could spur thousands of miles of new high-voltage power lines and make it easier to add more wind and solar energy.

The new rule by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, which oversees interstate electricity transmission, is the most significant attempt in years to upgrade and expand the country’s creaking electricity network. Experts have warned that there aren’t nearly enough high-voltage power lines being built today, putting the country at greater risk of blackouts from extreme weather while making it harder to shift to renewable sources of energy and cope with rising electricity demand.

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Source: The New York Times

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Utilities tend to treat solar & batteries as threats to their power grids. CA’s policy will now tap their flexible power to benefit the grid.

California’s new rules allow solar and batteries to help out the grid

For years, utilities have grappled with how to handle the ever-growing number of solar and battery systems trying to connect to the lower-voltage grids that deliver power to customers. That’s especially true for midsize projects like, say, a solar array that might adorn the roof of a multiunit apartment complex or a community-solar project that generates power shared by hundreds of dispersed customers.

On the one hand, utilities have eyed such projects warily, fearing that if the solar panels or batteries inject too much power onto local circuits at moments when electricity demand is low, it might cause grid instability or safety problems. As a result, utilities have thrown up barriers that have delayed or halted grid connections.

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Source: Canary Media

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Southern California Edison is positioned to make substantial investments in the resilience and reliability of its electrical grid

Southern California Edison eyeing ‘substantial investments’ in grid resilience and reliability, CEO says

Edison International reported $354 million in Q2 net income compared with about $241 million in the second quarter of 2022.

The 2025 through 2028 period “will be critical to achieving California’s 2030 and 2045 climate goals,” Pizarro said.

The company is confident in its 5% to 7% earnings-per-share growth rate guidance from 2021 through 2025, Rigatti said, and it expects to continue this rate from 2025 through 2028. This is partly due to strong rate base growth and partly because some of the headwinds the company has faced over the last couple of years are projected to stabilize by 2025.

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Source: Utility Dive

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The VPP program would allow fleets of customer-sited batteries to be remotely dispatched when demand for electricity is at its highest, the grid most stressed, and energy prices through the roof.

California Energy Commission approves new statewide VPP program

The California Energy Commission (CEC) approved on July 26 a new program that would tap into thousands of distributed solar-charged and standalone batteries located at homes and businesses throughout the state to meet the state’s growing electricity needs, particularly on hot summer evenings.

The concept is sometimes called a “virtual power plant,” and it is now featured in an innovative new part of the CEC’s Demand Side Grid Support program. The program would allow fleets of customer-sited batteries to be remotely dispatched when demand for electricity is at its highest, the grid most stressed, and energy prices through the roof. Energy prices rise when supplies are tight, like in a heat wave when demand for electricity spikes to keep air conditioners running. Bringing fleets of batteries online during these high-price events will help respond to grid emergencies, avoid power outages, help lower prices for all ratepayers and ultimately avoid grid emergencies in the first place.

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Source: Solar Power World

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The FERC approved a rule to speed up clogged interconnection processes that have left power generation and energy storage projects waiting years for permission to connect to the grid.

FERC issues rule to speed grid connections for storage, renewables, other generators amid 2 TW backlog

The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission on Thursday approved a rule to speed up clogged interconnection processes that have left power generation and energy storage projects waiting years for permission to connect to the grid.

“Today is a historic day,” FERC acting Chairman Willie Phillips said during a media briefing. “This rule will ensure that our country’s vast generation resources are able to interconnect to the transmission system in a reliable, efficient, transparent and timely manner.”

The rule, called Order 2023, is the first major change to FERC’s interconnection requirements in two decades.

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Source: Utility Dive

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CA will use $67.5M in federal infrastructure funds to add energy storage, invest in efficiency & harden its electric grid through CERI.

DOE rolls out $200M for grid investments; California will use $67.5M for storage, resilience

California and other states are increasingly facing extreme weather, underscoring the need for rapid grid investment.

There are more than 50 million Americans “bracing for record heat waves this week,” Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm noted. “They are counting on the grid to help them stay cool, [but] many people are just relying on outdated and failing electrical equipment.”

Parts of southern California are expected to face temperatures in excess of 100 degrees this week.

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Source: Utility Dive

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San Diego Gas & Electric has completed two additional utility-owned energy storage facilities totaling 171 MW.

SDG&E adds energy storage facilities for grid reliability

San Diego Gas & Electric (SDG&E) has completed two additional utility-owned energy storage facilities totaling 171 MW, enough to power almost 130,000 homes for four hours.

The 131 MW Westside Canal project, located in Imperial Valley – home to a high concentration of solar, wind and geothermal generation facilities – is the largest storage asset in SDG&E’s energy storage portfolio; the 40 MW Fallbrook project, located in Northern San Diego County, is the second largest in its portfolio.

By the end of this year, SDG&E’s energy storage portfolio is expected to reach 345 MW of power capacity, sufficient to meet over 15% of its customers’ load on a typical day and 7% on a system peak day. These energy storage assets participate in the energy markets managed by the California Independent System Operator (CAISO), allowing CAISO to store and dispatch clean energy from the facilities to meet electricity demand as needed.

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Source: Solar Industry

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PJM could benefit numerous states with thousands of jobs and billions in investment by implementing recent reforms.

Country’s largest grid operator must process and connect backlogged clean energy projects, a new report says

Virginia, Illinois, Ohio and Indiana have the most to gain in jobs and new investment if PJM, the country’s largest grid operator, can fix some of the problems now leading to long delays in clean energy projects, a new report says.

To make that happen, PJM would need to approve projects at the same rate it did about a decade ago.

But that requires clearing two big hurdles. The grid operator needs to make major progress on roughly 3,000 active matters in its new service request queue, where 97 percent of more than 250 gigawatts of proposed new generation is for renewable energy, battery storage or a combination of the two. And PJM, whose territory runs from Chicago to New Jersey, would need to add enough interstate power line capacity to connect those projects to the grid.

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Source: Inside Climate News

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CA’s energy storage portfolio could yield net grid benefits of up to $1.6B a year by 2032 as the state looks to expand grid-scale battery installations to 13.6 GW

California’s storage portfolio could provide grid benefits of up to $1.6B per year by 2032, report finds

Lumen’s study takes a closer look at the operations, costs and benefits of storage resources in California – largely lithium-ion batteries, but also including thermal energy storage and other battery chemistries. These resources range from 25 kW to 300 MW, with discharge durations that range from less than an hour to seven hours.

The report found that from 2017 through 2021, California’s stationary storage market developed from a pilot phase into deploying lithium-ion batteries at commercial scale. At the same time, storage costs dropped significantly – with third-party contract prices ranging from $5 to $8 per kilowatt-month for capacity by the end of 2021 – and the use of storage to meet reliability needs increased significantly.

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Source: Utility Dive

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