New York PSC Issues Demonstration Project Guidance
12/12/14 10:47
On Dec. 11, 2014, the NY PSC issued, on its own motion, a guidance document regarding the conduct of REV-related demonstration projects. Demonstrations and the stakeholder collaborative processes that can lead to them are a major component of our agenda at the Pace Energy and Climate Center, so this is important news to us.
The Commission adopted a solid document that articulates a number of principles that I think we can all sign onto.
The core principles, each discussed, are as follows:
- Flexibility
- Demonstrating Innovation
- Value Distribution
- Partnership with 3d Parties
- Broad Customer Engagement
- Focus on Market Solutions
- Lead to Developing Competitive Markets
- Ensure Cyber Security
- Design for Scalability
- Propose Cost Recovery Methods
However, there are a couple of things missing or inadequately emphasized, in my view -
1. There is no mention of BCA - benefit cost analysis. BCA is absolutely essential to accounting for and distributing value benefits and costs from the demonstration exercises.
2. The discussion about designing measures and metrics is buried in the Scalability discussion. Measures and metrics are essential to good demonstration projects and the topic deserves much more prominent treatment.
3. The Scalability discussion envisions following small-scale demonstrations and making them bigger. But with DER, a real challenge is scaling DOWN. That is, we need to figure out how to cost effectively pursue DER opportunities in the tiniest corners of the system. The benefits are just as solid, it just takes a little more work to get to them.
You can find the resolution here, and a related notice to utilities at this link.
The Commission adopted a solid document that articulates a number of principles that I think we can all sign onto.
The core principles, each discussed, are as follows:
- Flexibility
- Demonstrating Innovation
- Value Distribution
- Partnership with 3d Parties
- Broad Customer Engagement
- Focus on Market Solutions
- Lead to Developing Competitive Markets
- Ensure Cyber Security
- Design for Scalability
- Propose Cost Recovery Methods
However, there are a couple of things missing or inadequately emphasized, in my view -
1. There is no mention of BCA - benefit cost analysis. BCA is absolutely essential to accounting for and distributing value benefits and costs from the demonstration exercises.
2. The discussion about designing measures and metrics is buried in the Scalability discussion. Measures and metrics are essential to good demonstration projects and the topic deserves much more prominent treatment.
3. The Scalability discussion envisions following small-scale demonstrations and making them bigger. But with DER, a real challenge is scaling DOWN. That is, we need to figure out how to cost effectively pursue DER opportunities in the tiniest corners of the system. The benefits are just as solid, it just takes a little more work to get to them.
You can find the resolution here, and a related notice to utilities at this link.