The small residential energy storage incentive budgets and large-scale energy storage incentive budgets for Step 3 and each subsequent Step shall be proportionately lowered to fund the new SGIP Equity Budget. For incentive Step 3 and subsequent incentive Steps, 10% of the Equity Budget shall be reserved for single family and multi-family low-income housing regardless of the size of the energy storage project (less than or greater than 10 kilowatts). Each developer accessing the SGIP Equity Budget in a given Step must not reserve incentives in excess of 20% of the total SGIP Equity Budget for that Step. Background Legislative and Procedural History California’s SelfGeneration Incentive Program (SGIP) was established in 2001 by the Commission in Decision (D.) 0103073 in response to Assembly Bill (AB) 970 (Ducheny, Stats. 2000, Ch. 329). AB 970 directed the Commission to provide incentives for distributed generation resources to reduce peak energy demand. Since 2001, the Legislature has refined and extended SGIP several times. During 2014 and 2015, the Commission acted to extend SGIP funding through 2019 and updated program eligibility criteria related to greenhouse gas emissions, pursuant to Senate Bill (SB) 861 (Committee on Budget and Fiscal Review, 2014). In 2016, the Commission adopted D.1606055, which made significant programmatic changes for how SGIP incentive dollars are awarded and other program refinements. On April 6, 2017, the Commission adopted D.17-04-017 doubling the budget for SGIP for years 2017-2019, pursuant to AB 1637 (Low, 2016).
- $12.25 million – shall be allocated to the Step 3 Equity Budget. Each of the large-scale and residential budgets shall be reduced by 25% to accommodate the new Equity Budget for Step 3. Therefore, in this example, PG&E’s large-scale energy storage budget for Step 3 would be $32.25 million and the small residential budget would be $4.5 million. Resource Categories Subject to SGIP Equity Budget The ACR proposed that 20% of the budgets for the energy storage categories and renewable generation resource category be reserved for disadvantaged communities. We first look at the budget resource category issue before turning to the percentage amount. GRID Alternatives’ comments on this topic suggest that the SGIP will be better served if the SGIP Equity Budget is limited to the energy storage category. GRID Alternatives reasons that energy storage is the resource most likely to provide benefits to customers in disadvantaged and low-income communities and that these communities may not be suited for renewable energy generation technologies. Energy storage currently makes up the vast majority of SGIP incentives reserved in 2017, and we have previously reserved approximately 80% of ongoing SGIP incentives for energy storage projects. In setting the SGIP Equity Budget the Commission must balance the objective to reserve a portion of SGIP funds for investments in disadvantaged and low-income communities, without imposing unnecessary limitations on otherwise eligible projects. Reserving budget for resources that are unlikely to be located in disadvantaged and low-income communities regardless of the budget structure do not advance the objectives of the policy addressed herein or SGIP’s broader objectives. Setting the SGIP Equity Budget solely within the energy