Ideal Power applauds California Public Utilities Commission action on self-generation incentive program
Ideal Power, a developer of innovative power conversion technologies, is pleased to support the recent decision by the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) to modify the Self-Generation Incentive Program (SGIP) to allocate 75% of new funding to energy storage and modify the program rules to bolster the competitive environment for the leading behind-the-meter energy storage market in the U.S. The CPUC displayed strong leadership in resolving the 2016 SGIP delay, enabling approximately $70 million of new energy storage projects submitted in February 2016 to proceed. Additional SGIP funds are expected to be made available later this year under the modified program rules of which approximately $36 million are expected to be allocated to energy storage projects.
“The temporary road block to deploying energy storage projects utilizing the California SGIP incentive funds has been cleared,” said Dan Brdar, Ideal Power CEO. “We appreciate the CPUC’s diligence on this matter and look forward to the commencement of SGIP application processing as there are numerous projects that we expect to use our power conversion systems. Additionally, we believe the $276 million of energy storage projects submitted for SGIP funding on February 23rd is a strong indication of growing interest for energy storage.”
The CPUC established a target of 1,325MW of energy storage to be implemented in California by 2020. The SGIP program goals include grid support services that utilize energy storage to reduce or shift peak demand, improve efficiency and reliability of the distribution and transmission system, lower grid infrastructure costs, provide ancillary services, and ensure customer reliability in addition to incentives for microgrids. This creates a tremendous market opportunity for Ideal Power’s power conversion systems, which are based on its award-winning Power Packet Switching Architecture™ (“PPSA”) and are quickly becoming the industry standard for behind-the-meter, battery energy storage systems.
The Proposed Decision:
• Frees up approximately $36 million of SGIP incentive funding for storage
• Allocates 75% of the SGIP budget going forward to energy storage projects
• Gives priority to storage systems that are combined with renewable energy
• Structures the program on a step down basis similar to the California Solar Initiative
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