The California Public Utility Commission (CPUC) released new guidance on their Self-Generation Incentive Program (SGIP) back in February that provides $675 million in new storage incentives for distributed energy resources, notably advanced energy storage systems, over a five-year period.
This is great news for customers and the clean energy industry. However, the rules on eligibility requirements are quite complex to navigate given the various ways market segments can overlap or not.
How do customers qualify? Which category will apply? Let’s dive into the categories and try to analyze the target markets for each category.
The amount of incentive that a customer receives depends mainly on (1) the customer’s location with regard to a fire zone, and (2) if the customer is low-income or serves low-income customers.
The tables below attempt to (overly) simplify the eligibility across the available categories. The first table shows the existing categories and the available funding as of February 2020.
Given that the names of these categories can be confusing, let’s try to standardize market segments and assign them to an incentive category. The result of this exercise is the first table below.
Now that we have assigned these market segments to incentive categories, it’s easier to see how much incentive, measured in kilowatt-hour storage capacity, each customer may receive.
Please note that this is a bit oversimplified. Keep reading to learn more about the specifics of each incentive category.
This is clearly the bulk of new funding and over half of the total incentives with the carry-over from the unserved funds. The goal of this category is to serve customers that are especially vulnerable to utility shutoffs.
Incentive amount: $1,000/kilowatt-hour of storage capacity.
There are three ways to qualify:
Because the main barrier to this funding is a location within a high-risk area of PSPS, let’s see where that is across the state.
You can make the below map full screen and search property locations to see if they fall within fire threat zones and/or disadvantaged communities.
Incentive amount: $850/kWh
The naming conventions are confusing so I’m just going to call this Equity, Non-Resiliency. This category essentially reserves SGIP incentives for low-income or disadvantaged communities no matter where they are located. Public agencies in low-income areas are also eligible.
How to qualify for the Equity, Non-Resiliency incentive:
Single family housing must meet one of the following:
Multifamily housing must meet both of the following criteria:
Non-Residential customers:
A government agency, educational institution, non-profit organization, or small business Located in an SGIP DAC 6.
Incentive amount: $200/kWh (Step 6) and $150/kWh (Step 7) with option for a $150/kWh resiliency adder.
How to qualify for resiliency adder:
Critical facilities in PSP zones that to not serve disadvantaged/low-income communities.
Incentive Amount: $200/kWh (Step 6) and $150/kWh (Step 7)
How to qualify:
Small residential projects that are not eligible for either the Equity Budget or the Equity Resiliency Budget may take the standard general market incentive. Keep in mind that 50% of the funds in each step are reserved for projects in designated fire zone areas.
There are obviously a lot more details to SGIP eligibility than the discussion in this article. I would encourage you to review the full details using the links below. Shout out to Adam Gerza of Energy Toolbase who helped review the contents of this article!
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