CPUC RESOLUTION E-4949 AND INSIGHTS INTO LARGE SCALE ENERGY STORAGE IN CALIFORNIA
Amidst all the PCIA “exit fee” discussion in the California energy market, one important issue that has received less publicity is the CPUC’s resolution on energy storage (available below), approved on the November 8, 2018 consent agenda. This resolution approves over half a Gigawatt of battery storage from PG&E and provides a good snapshot of where utility-scale battery technology is going:
All are lithium ion batteries
All are 4 hour duration (meeting local reliability standards)
Mostly located in the Moss Landing/Morgan Hill Areas (these areas were subject to CAISO backstop procurement recently)
2019-2020 COD dates
Priced at a net positive value over CAISO backstop procurement in those areas, meaning below $6.30/kw-month
Similarly, SCE has already procured 182.5 MW of storage for Aliso Canyon reliability issues, but SCE will increase procurement to 580 MW by 2020.
These storage procurements are largely in the context of reliability services, and they are interesting in that the IOUs see a role as RA providers instead of solely utilizing third party generators (a good example of this is that PG&E owns the Tesla facility, and PG&E has increased their procurement from the CPUC-set storage target of 530 MW by 2020 to 811 MW per the draft resolution). If you have any questions about the energy storage resolution or how it may impact your organization, please contact Dan Griffiths at dg@cameron-daniel.com.