August 19, 2019
Energy storage is important, especially in times when blackouts may occur. The governor of Long Island has a storage target of 1,500 megawatts by 2025 through the New York Energy Storage Roadmap. The New York Energy Storage Roadmap also recommends market acceleration incentives of 55 million dollars for PSEG Long Island. The goal of the energy storage roadmap is to reach 3,000 MW of energy stored by 2030.
The plan to pair solar energy with energy storage allows for many significant benefits, and will leverage the NY-Sun momentum. New York is compensating for energy storage through the value stack for grid benefits for the first time. It is most valuable through commercial solar. Pairing with solar energy allows for federal investment tax credits for solar. By using solar, the NY-Sun approach will allow support for zoning and permitting from the local government. This also captures cost savings associated with combined siting and permitting through tax equity financing of paired systems.
The NY-Sun Storage Incentive Program Rules
Residential and commercial projects may qualify for the NY-Sun energy storage incentive adder
Energy storage projects that are considered eligible will receive $250 per kWh of installed energy storage capacity (AC)
Low to moderate income residential customers can receive an additional $150/kWh
Projects that are seeking energy storage incentives must be submitted by a NYSERDA approved contractor
Projects must follow all NY-Sun Program rules and requirements as well as solar plus energy storage requirements - as shown in the NY-Sun Program Manual. Non-residential storage projects are in the Retail Energy Storage Program Manual
Solar Plus Energy Storage Eligibility
Projects Eligible:
Projects that are eligible are new residential, commercial and industrial NY-Sun projects.
Community generation and remote solar under VDER
Existing NY Sun project applications in approved status
Non-Residential storage projects not paired with PV (standalone storage)
Projects not eligible:
Already interconnected PV projects
Residential storage that is not paired with PV
Contractor Eligibility:
Residential projects: contractors and builders that are registered with NY-Sun program.
Non-residential projects must register through NYSERDA Energy Storage Program
Equipment & System Sizing Requirements for Solar Plus Energy Storage:
The equipment must be permanently installed
Must be new and commercially available
The equipment needs to be certified to UL 1973 and 9540 by the time of the installation
Needs to meet all AHJ requirements
Equipment must be warrantied for at least 10 years
The equipment needs to maintain a minimum of 70% round trip efficiency during the system life.
The maximum eligibility capacity of an energy storage system is:
25kWh for residential solar
15MWh for commercial solar
To avoid over-sizing of energy storage capacity, the capacity eligible for incentive is limited to four times the rating of the associated inverter.
Projects requiring a greater storage capacity may submit justification for the larger storage capacity if appropriate. The incentive on the additional capacity may be granted at NYSERDA’s discretion.
Dynamic Load Management
The Dynamic Load Management program seeks to reduce peak demand and to compensate participants for reducing their electricity drawn from the grid on hot summer days. Energy storage systems charge when the excess electricity is available and reduce the amount of electricity pulled from the grid, especially during high demand hours.
From May 1st through September 30th, participants may be asked to export the energy from their storage system. This energy will either be consumed in their home/business or exported to the grid when the daily forecasted systems-wide electric load is expected to reach 94% of the forecasted summer peak.
New and qualifying battery storage projects will be eligible to receive reservation payments under the CSRP and DLRP tariffs. This is to promote market stability and provide additional price certainty, therefore reducing the upfront investment that is needed for installing battery storage projects.
Net Metering and VDER customers can also participate in CSRP and DLRP programs.
Customers participating will receive reservation payments based on the energy that they have pledged to reduce upon request.
Reservation Payments (per kW per month): $8.00
Payments for Performance for Load Relief (per kWh): $0.25
Interconnection Procedures
LIPA’s (Long Island Power Authority) smart grid small generator interconnection procedure will help provide the framework for processing applications to the LIPA’s distribution system. This is for interconnection of the new or modified distributed generation facilities with a nameplate rating of 10MW or less aggregated - based on the customer’s side of the point of common coupling. Long Island has a web based system for Smart Grid SGIP application process.
By Kasey Liu
Sources:
https://www.nyserda.ny.gov/All-Programs/Programs/NY-Sun
https://www.nyserda.ny.gov/All-Programs/Programs/NY-Sun/Contractors/How-the-Dashboard-Works
https://www.nyserda.ny.gov/All-Programs/Programs/NY-Sun/Contractors
https://www.virta.global/blog/what-is-dynamic-load-management
https://www.psegliny.com/businessandcontractorservices/businessandcommercialsavings/csrp