A new proposed decision by the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC)’s Commissioner Michael Picker has been released, proposing a number of revisions to the Self Generation Incentive Program (SGIP). The introduction of the proposed decision is below.
This decision modifies the Self-Generation Incentive Program (SGIP) to implement changes pursuant to statute, as required by Senate Bill (SB) 861 (2014) and Assembly Bill (AB) 1478 (2014),1 and to make other program changes to improve SGIP’s ability to achieve its goals. The major changes to SGIP effected by this decision include:
- Rather than making additional funds available every year, SGIP shall be administered on a continuous basis with incentive levels declining based on the capacity reserved in the program, similar to the California Solar Initiative;
- The incentive budgets will be divided between two broad categories: energy storage and generation. Energy storage is allocated 75% of program funds, with 15% of the energy storage budget carved out for projects less than or equal to 10 kilowatts. Generation is allocated the remaining 25%, with 10% carved out for renewable generation projects;
- New incentive levels are adopted as shown in Tables 1 and 2 below;
- Beginning with program year 2017, generation projects consuming natural gas must use a minimum of 10% biogas to receive an SGIP incentive. The minimum requirement increases to 25% in 2018, 50% in 2019, and 100% in 2020;
- A lottery will replace the first-come, first-served system when applications received on the same day request more incentives than the remaining budget at the current incentive step. Projects which have additional greenhouse gas/grid benefits will be given priority in the lottery;
- Each participating project developer will be capped at a total of 20% of the incentive budget on a statewide basis. This replaces the previous 40% cap that applied to equipment manufacturers; and
- Eligibility for the California Supplier adder now requires third-party certification to show that at least 50% of value added occurs in California.
The proposed decision can be read in full here. For more on energy storage, click here.