California has introduced a flexible interconnection option with which distributed solar and storage projects can connect without waiting for expensive gridup grades, although the required control hardware is not yet available on a large scale.
A flexible interconnection option for distributed solar or storage in California that was in the making for a long time now has strength.
Projects can be connected to each other that would otherwise have to wait for grid -upgrades.
A project developer can now choose to adhere to “limited generation profiles”, which specify the maximum amount of electrical generation. A distributed energy source system will export all year round at different times.
For a developer who chooses this option, the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) ruled that the export of energy can be controlled by an energy management system that meets the UL 3141 standards for power control systems with an integrated diagram. Power Control systems are composed of a controller, sensors and inverters.
UL 3141 has recorded a planning function since October 2024, said Brian Lydic, main regulating engineer of the Interstate Renewable Energy Council (IREC). The CPUC order came into force nine months later, but Lydic said that the equipment list of the California Energy Commission does not show any power control systems that meet the UL Standard.
“Hopefully there is some market pulls to get manufacturers to get equipment,” he said, now that the Flexible Generation option is available in California, “but there may be some delay.”
The CPUC order indicates That a solar -or storage developer can choose one of the three approaches to limit the generation levels of a system to prevent times of congestion on the distribution circuit, as identified by the integration capacity analysis of the utility for that circuit. The different approaches apply to different hours of the day, or to a combination of times of the year and hourly blocks. The three approaches are described in Table 3 of the order under the sections “24-hour”, “Blok” and “18-23 fixed.”
Long way
IREC has Draw the work From stakeholders of clean energy in ten years who have led to the flexible interconnection option.
The basis for limited generation profiles was laid when California needed aid programs to publish detailed, time -dependent data on raster circumstances on every distribution circuit, IREC noted.
Stakeholders first achieved a CPUC pronunciation in 2017 that requires the State utilities to publish integration capacity analyzes, also known as hosting capacity analyzes, which are specific to each distribution circuit. Then, after IREC had found Errors in data from the Interconnection capacity analysis (ICA)Stakeholders achieved a CPUC pronunciation from 2021 that required utilities to validate the data.
The CPUC then began to consider the use of ICA data to make flexible interconnection possible, and defined the flexible interconnection process in the order of 2024, six years after limited generation profiles were proposed.
IREC said that the rules of the CPUC for limited generation profiles can be adjusted over time, because utilities collect data, as ordered by the CPUC, related to facilities using the profile.
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