California passes energy storage bills, allocating $187 Million for new projects

Dispute resolution process is expected to reduce the time for approval and interconnection costs for energy storage

energy storage
REUTERS/Scott Audette

AUSTIN, TX – With the passing of Assembly Bill 1637, California doubled the incentives for energy storage projects throughout the state for calendar years 2017-2019.

The newly signed bill by Governor Jerry Brown allocates an additional $187 million for energy storage projects under California’s Self-Generation Incentive Program (SGIP) with the funding expected to be made available equally over the three-year period.

The California legislature is expanding SGIP funds to increase deployment of distributed generation and energy storage systems.

The integration of those resources into the electrical grid is expected to improve the efficiency and reliability of the distribution and transmission system, reduce emissions of greenhouse gases, mitigate peak demand and reduce ratepayer costs.

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In addition to Assembly Bill 1637, two other bills impacting energy storage were signed by Governor Brown. Assembly Bill 2868 increases the previously established target for energy storage to be implemented in California by 2020 from 1,325MW to 1,825MW.

In Assembly Bill 2861, the State authorized the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) to create an objective, expedited dispute-resolution process for distributed, behind-the-meter energy resources attempting to establish an interconnection to an investor-owned utility (Edison, PG&E, or SDG&E) grid.

This dispute resolution process is expected to reduce the time for approval and interconnection costs for energy storage and distributed generation projects connected to the grid.

“California continues to lead not just the United States but also the world in the implementation of battery storage. We believe the CPUC’s decision to increase funding will be a primary driver for accelerating growth in energy storage,” commented Dan Brdar, CEO of Ideal Power, Inc., a developer of innovative power conversion technologies.

Ideal Power’s power conversion systems are based on its patented Power Packet Switching Architecture™ (“PPSA™”), a revolutionary approach to power conversion that uses 100% indirect power flow to deliver a bi-directional, fully isolated conversion while eliminating a majority of the bulky passive components, such as the separate isolation transformer and bulk capacitors, that are used in traditional power conversion systems.

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