Connecticut has launched three new proceedings to explore grid modernization policies that are likely to be of interest to the microgrid community.

Underway before the state Public Utilities Regulatory Authority (PURA), the three policy tracks will look at reliability and system resilience metrics and targets, non-wires alternatives, and the state’s clean and renewable energy program.

They are part of Connecticut’s larger effort to create a framework for an “equitable modern grid,” released by PURA in October and described as a way to lead “by example and show that economic and environmental objectives are not mutually exclusive.” (Docket No. 17-12-03 Interim Decision).

The three topics are among 11 the regulatory authority is investigating in its grid modernization efforts. Six of the topics are further along in the multi-prong proceeding. They cover energy affordability, electric storage, advanced metering infrastructure, zero emissions vehicles, innovation pilots, and interconnection standards.

The regulatory authority in May released requests for proposals and requests for program designs for the six topics. Proposal deadlines run through July 31.

After it receives responses from the six solicitations, the authority will create a straw proposal, which it will open to comment, before releasing a final decision.

Coming up later in the process — what PURA calls Phase III — are the latest three topics:

• Resilience metrics and targets (Docket No. 17-12-03RE08)
• Non-wires alternatives (Docket No. 17-12-03RE07)
• The state’s clean and renewable energy program (Docket No. 17-12-03RE09)

The regulatory authority seeks industry experts to provide information and comment on the three topics. Those who want to participate must file a petition by July 31.

US utility firm PacifiCorp has launched its largest request for proposals for energy projects yet, seeking bids for more than 1.8GW of new solar and 600MW of battery energy storage.

The firm, which owns utilities Pacific Power and Rocky Mountain Power, issued the RFP as part of its latest Integrated Resource Plan (IRP) which outlines its intent to massively scale up its renewable energy capacity.

Alongside 1,920MW of wind, PacifiCorp wants to add 1,823MW of solar and 595MW of battery energy storage to its portfolio by the end of 2023, an increase it described as “significant” compared to its current output.

The RFP, which is open now, will accept bids of different types and resource structures, including power purchase agreements and those entailing build-transfer contracts. Projects must be able to achieve operation by the end of 2024, and more detail on the RFP is available here.

Rick Link, vice president of resource planning at PacifiCorp, said the RFP was a “catalyst” to help realise an “affordable, reliable and increasingly sustainable” power system.

PacifiCorp, which is owned by Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway Group, operates in US states including California, Oregon, Washington, Idaho, Utah and Wyoming.

US utilities and their respective IRPs have proven to be a particularly rich vein for solar developers of late, with numerous companies outlining more ambitious plans for solar and other renewables as they look to decarbonise their power supplies.

Late last month Arizona’s Tucson Electric Power revealed plans to derive 70% of its power from solar and wind by 2035, with Indiana utility Vectren having outlined plans to replace nearly 700MW of coal generation with renewables.

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In a victory for the energy storage industry, a federal appeals court has upheld the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission’s Order 841, clearing the way for transmission grid operators across the country to open their markets to energy storage, including aggregated batteries connected at the distribution grid or behind customers’ meters.

Friday’s court opinion (PDF) declared that FERC has jurisdiction over how energy storage interacts with the interstate transmission markets it regulates, even if those systems are interconnected to the grid under regulations set by the states.

The court also rejected arguments by utility groups and state utility regulators seeking to opt out of allowing energy storage resources (ESRs) to participate under Order 841, which allows for units as small as 100 kilowatts to access wholesale markets.

Instead, the three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit agreed with FERC’s contention that “[k]eeping the gates open to all types of ESRs — regardless of their interconnection points in the electric energy systems — ensures that technological advances in energy storage are fully realized in the marketplace, and efficient energy storage leads to greater competition, thereby reducing wholesale rates.”

Beyond helping to make wholesale markets more efficient, Order 841 has started to open new energy storage opportunities in grid markets in New England and New York. The rest of the country’s transmission grid operators, which manage wholesale markets serving roughly two-thirds of the country’s electricity customers, are creating their own Order 841 implementation plans.

Wood Mackenzie predicts that Order 841 will open up new opportunities for energy storage developers and aggregators that have primarily relied on state-by-state energy storage mandates and market opportunities to date. While energy storage industry groups have fought against some grid operators’ interpretation of Order 841, they’ve also hailed its broader potential benefits.

“This is an enormous step for energy storage, with the affirmation that energy storage connected at the distribution level must have the option to access wholesale markets, allowing homes and businesses to contribute to the resiliency, efficiency, sustainability, and affordability of the grid,” Kelly Speakes-Backman, chief executive of the Energy Storage Association, said in an email.

The threat of chronic blackouts is sparking a rush to install battery backup systems as California homeowners try to avoid disruptive power cuts related to wildfires.

Blackouts are increasingly a part of life as Pacific Gas and Electric Co. strives to avoid igniting deadly blazes with aging equipment. At fault for some of the state’s worst wildfires, the utility shut off power nine times between June and October last year in Northern California. Some blackouts lasted for days, and at least one affected more than a million people.

The utility plans to use shut-offs for years as it upgrades its system (Climatewire, July 1). It’s pledged to reduce their scope and restore power more quickly.

But many residents aren’t reassured.

Nitsa Lallas and husband Ignacio Arribas, who live in the San Francisco suburb of Mill Valley, are getting two Tesla Powerwalls installed this week to store power from the solar panels on their 2,600-square-foot house.

“The primary trigger for us was when it became clear that these power shut-offs were part of the plan for the foreseeable future,” Lallas said. “PG&E was telling customers to expect them. … It appeared to us that every fire season, we would have multiple shut-offs, and that that would happen for multiple years.”

They’re not alone. Permit applications for energy storage projects are surging, according to local officials. In Sonoma County, about 80 miles north of San Francisco, 174 permits were issued in the first half of this year. That eclipsed the 161 permits that were approved in all of 2019.

Interest has boomed with advancing storage technology and since it became clear that blackouts will persist. The county issued 76 permits in 2018, and 47 in 2017, said Domenica Giovannini, policy manager for Sonoma County.