An Overview of Behind-The-Meter Solar-Plus-Storage Regulatory Design: Approaches and Case Studies to Inform International Applications
The NREL technical report, An Overview of Behind-The-Meter Solar-Plus-Storage Regulatory Design: Approaches and Case Studies to Inform International Applications, outlines a series of steps that can be employed by regulators to approach distributed solar-plus-storage regulatory design.
An Overview of Behind-The-Meter Solar-Plus-Storage Regulatory Design: Approaches and
Case Studies to Inform International Applications (Zinaman et al. 2020)
Regulatory decisions are made in the broader context of a policy and market environment.
This policy and market context influences all other steps in the decision-making process.
This report discusses current practices and standards while acknowledging the need
to develop where practices are not yet in place.
Topics Covered
This report outlines a series of steps that can be employed by regulators to approach behind-the-meter (BTM) solar-plus-storage regulatory design:
- Develop and prioritize regulatory objectives
- Design compensation mechanism
- Design metering and technical configuration requirements
- Design interconnection process
- Consider local permitting issues.
Key Takeaways
Determine the Desired Capabilities Up-Front
Determining the desired role (set of capabilities) of BTM solar -plus-storage systems upfront, prior to advancing rule-making, can help to guide a range of decisions related to compensation mechanism design, metering and technical configuration requirements, and technical interconnection processes and requirements.
Customize Rules and Requirements
Customizing rules and requirements—metering and technical configuration requirements, and interconnection processes—based on the characteristics of the BTM solar-plus-storage system is a key strategy.
Balance Utility and Consumer Interests
Conventional resolution of certain utility concerns—inadvertent export, for example—involve additional expenditures by customers (and developers) and/or new administrative burdens (cost) for utilities. Regulators are in a position to balance utility and customer interests and ensure that utility proposals to mitigate their concerns do not place an undue burden on participating and nonparticipating customers.
Design Interconnection Rules
In practice, BTM solar-plus-storage interconnection processes may be quite similar to (or even the exact same as) processes for traditional DER systems, without storage. Yet, while utility technical review processes or screens should adequately cover solar-plus-storage systems, a few modifications and key differences are discussed in this report.
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