The California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) has issued a milestone decision allowing renewable energy systems to be approved for interconnection to the grid using energy export schedules. This decision will reduce the need for expensive grid infrastructure upgrades and support higher levels of renewables on the grid.
The move is the first of its kind for the U.S. and will pave the way for distributed energy resources (DERs) like solar PV and energy storage to operate flexibly with the grid.
The schedules, known as a Limited Generation Profile or LGP, limit the amount of energy DERs can send to the grid at various times, based on identified grid constraints.
Independent nonprofit Interstate Renewable Energy Council (IREC) played a crucial role in the CPUC’s decision and has been working toward reforming California’s interconnection policies for the past decade.
According to IREC, the CPUC is allowing the implementation of these flexible schedules as long as utilities perform Integration Capacity Analysis, which is the publishing of detailed, time-varying data on distribution grid conditions at each node on their systems.
Under the Commission’s decision, renewable energy developers can use the Integration Capacity Analysis to design an LGP to ensure projects stay within hosting capacity limits, which greatly reduces the need for costly grid infrastructure upgrades that would otherwise be required.
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