No More Storing Dirty Energy: California Works to Cut Emissions Due to Energy Storage

on October 1, 2018

We generally think of energy storage, especially when coupled with renewable energy, as clean and green.

But the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC), through its Self-Generation Incentive Program (SGIP), has discovered that SGIP energy storage projects actually increase greenhouse gas emissions.

Once again, the state is leading the way with its environmental policies, this time with a proposal to cut greenhouse gas emissions (GHG) due to energy storage. The CPUC staff has issued a proposal that’s expected to address the problem and possibly create a program replicable elsewhere, as California did with its emissions trading efforts.

“In a similar, data-forward, hands-off approach the CPUC took to introducing ’emissions trading’, the GHG signal proposal would arm the industry with accurate up-to-date data and then get out of the way. That approach scaled to become an essential pollution control across the globe, and I see the GHG signal doing the same,” said Gavin McCormick, executive director, WattTime, who participated in the working group that created the proposal.

The energy storage emissions problem was uncovered by the 2017 and 2016 SGIP Advanced Energy Storage Impact Evaluation reports. They showed that under the current system, SGIP energy storage projects increase GHG emissions — for both residential and non-residential projects, McCormick said.

Bad timing creates emissions

Energy storage’s ability to reduce GHG emissions is all about when batteries are charged using grid power — and what incentives are available to ensure they’re stored at the right time. SGIP storage has led to a net increase in greenhouse gas emissions, in part because most time-of-use (TOU) rates aren’t designed to reduce charging energy storage when grid power is creating high greenhouse gas emissions, said the CPUC staff in its proposal.

In addition, existing retail rates provide incentives for customers to prioritize demand charge management over TOU rate arbitrage, it said.

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Fractal Energy Storage ConsultantsNo More Storing Dirty Energy: California Works to Cut Emissions Due to Energy Storage