Jonathan Hart, a technology integration specialist with CSE’s Distributed Energy Resources team, will be joining some of the nation’s leading experts on advanced energy storage speaking on a panel at the 11th annual Storage Week. The conference focuses on the benefits utility customers and the power grid can derive from behind-the-meter energy storage systems.
In 2010, California became the first state to mandate energy storage procurement with targets for each major investor-owned utility. The objective is to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, cut peak electric demand, defer or substitute investments in new generation or grid assets and improve overall grid reliability. Ultimately, the California Public Utilities Commission ruled that the utilities must secure 1,325 megawatts (MW) of energy storage systems by 2020.
One of the main purposes of Storage Week 2018 is to invigorate energy storage expansion by convincing utilities and financiers that significant energy cost reductions are possible with storage and that existing and proposed revenue streams are viable and bankable.
Hart will be discussing the revenue streams and incentives that provide the highest financial return for commercial and industrial utility customers, which are significant factors that encourage behind-the-meter (or distributed) energy storage systems. Since 2011, California’s Self-Generation Incentive Program (SGIP) has funded more than 71 MW of behind-the-meter energy storage projects, with an additional 40 MW in the queue. CSE administers SGIP in the San Diego Gas & Electric service territory.
Hart discussed how to achieve maximum value from the deployment of distributed energy storage systems in a CSE Energy Loop blog, Unlocking the Value of Behind-the-Meter Energy Storage. In it, he examines four principal financial signals – tariffs, demand response programs, utility procurement contracts and direct wholesale market participation. Local and state government agencies can develop these mechanisms to promote more efficient uses of energy storage systems, not only in California, but also in local and state entities nationwide.
Other presenters joining Hart on the panel will be moderator John Bryan, VP of Commercial Applications, EPC Power Corp. and panelists Fernando De Samaniego Steta, Director of Sales, GELI and Mark Tholke, chief development officer, Advanced Microgrid Solutions.
Storage Week 2018 will be held at the Hotel Kabuki in San Francisco Feb. 27 – March 1. Hart’s panel, Value Stacking, Revenue Streams and Ownership and Control Structures for Commercial and Industrial Aggregations, will be held at 9 a.m. on Tuesday, Feb. 27.