The New York State Department of Public Service (NYSDPS) recently endorsed a plan to compensate owners of renewable energy projects for the power they provide to the grid.
Compensating distributed energy contributors would maximize grid benefits and reduce cost for energy providers and consumers, according to a NYDPS press release.
The plan would also encourage the development of renewable energy projects, reduce the cost of implementing renewable energy, and accelerate progress to meet the state’s clean energy and carbon emission reduction goals. New York’s renewable energy industry would grow through the program as would the community distributed generation (CDG) market.
“Distributed energy resources, such as CDG, are critical to building out an energy system that will meet half of New York’s electricity needs with clean and renewable energy by 2030,” says NYSDPS CEO John B. Rhodes. “Smarter, forward-thinking compensation for these projects will assure that these markets are developed in a robust, cost-effective and sustainable way. Today’s reports recognize the necessity to refine and advance compensation policy for distributed energy in order to encourage investment in New York’s clean energy economy.”
The NYSDPS report also includes these recommendations:
- Establish more opportunities for electric customers to receive market transition credits in areas of the state that have experienced suboptimal market development of CDGs.
- Create alternative incentive mechanisms for community solar in the Central Hudson Gas & Electric and Orange and Rockland utility regions.
- Improve the predictability, calculation and compensation of the distribution value of clean and renewable generation.
- Extend net energy metering to systems up to 750 kW in cases where onsite energy generation is primarily used for customer demand.
- Enhance and standardize market transition credits across upstate utility territories to ensure that additional electric customers can have energy needs met though a community distributed generation.
The proposals in the NYSPSC were the result of ongoing public input, and the commission is seeking further feedback as it considers the proposals.