A newly released staff report from the New York State Department of Public Service (NYDPS) proposes to increase the penetration of solar, wind, battery storage, and other consumer-driven technologies in New York through efforts to better quantify the value these technologies provide to the grid. The report is part of the New York Public Service Commission’s (NYPSC) ongoing Value of Distributed Energy Resources (DERs) proceeding and its ongoing efforts to “Reform[] the Energy Vision” in New York.
According to the report, reforming the energy vision will require increased reliance on DERs, including end-use energy efficiency, demand response, distributed storage, and distributed generation. The staff proposal envisions that more appropriately compensating DERs will spur increased utilization of these resources and, in turn, reduce system costs overall for the benefit of all customers. The report proposes a series of measures to achieve this and other goals, including a process to better calculate the value of DERs; development of “Virtual Generation Portfolios,” under which private utilities will develop DERs; encouragement of community distributed generation projects; and increased deployment of energy storage. NYDPS will accept initial comments on the report through December 5, 2016; replies to those comments are due December 19, 2016.
