New Report: California Rule 21 Working Group 3

Electric Rule 21 is a tariff that describes the interconnection, operating and metering requirements for generation facilities to be connected to a utility’s distribution system. The tariff provides customers wishing to install generating or storage facilities on their premises with access to the electric grid while protecting the safety and reliability of the distribution and transmission systems at the local and system levels.

Rule 21 Working Group Three met 24 times from November 2018 to May 2019 to consider eleven scoped issues for interconnection of distributed energy resources (DERs), including electric vehicles and storage.  Gridworks facilitated and supported the process together with the Commission’s Energy Division. The Working Group produced 41 individual proposals across the eleven issues, with the majority being consensus proposals.

Some highlights of the Working Group proposals:

• Timelines for distribution upgrades including quarterly tracking and reporting of interconnection applications and standard timelines for design and construction of interconnection-related distribution upgrades.
• Requirements for inverter-based generating facilities to be treated as non-export, limited-export, or inadvertent export in interconnection review.
• Further elaboration of operational requirements of smart inverters, and determining the process for requesting and approving inverter settings that are different from default settings.
• Improvements to utility interconnection application portals in eighteen different categories, such as streamlined data entry, e-signatures, online payments methods, and vehicle-to-grid interconnection.
• Further clarity on transfers of behind-the-meter distributed energy resources from Rule 21 interconnection to CAISO wholesale market interconnection agreements.
• Recognition of stationary and mobile energy storage devices, such as electric vehicles, greater understanding of standards and technical work needed for vehicle-to-grid (V2G) interconnection requirements, and recognition of vehicle-to-grid (V2G) interconnection requirements for DC (stationary inverter) V2G charging configurations.

The final report was filed on June 14 and is available on the Gridworks website.

Thanks to all who participated in the Working Group process!