SCE Maps Out Its Vision for the Electric Grid of the Future
July 01 2015 - 4:34PM
Business Wire
Filed Distribution Resources Plan would
bring sweeping changes to the way customers interact with a more
resilient, reliable and low-carbon power network of
tomorrow
Southern California Edison (SCE) today filed its Distribution
Resources Plan (DRP) with the California Public Utilities
Commission. The filing is the next step in a proceeding the
commission initiated last August to move toward full integration of
Distributed Energy Resources (such as rooftop solar, storage,
electric vehicle charging, energy efficiency and demand response)
in operations, investment and distribution system planning.
In the past, SCE produced or bought power from large,
centralized power sources and delivered it to customers — only
requiring a “one-way road.” In the future, the electric
distribution system will deliver power from many sources, including
from customers. This means power flows back from customers to the
distribution system at times, requiring a “two-way road”.
This “two-way road” could come with traffic congestion that will
increase without an upgraded grid. The Distributed Resources Plan
provides a road map to address this issue. SCE’s filing includes
five key guiding principles in planning, creating and operating the
power network of tomorrow:
- Ensure safety, reliability and
resilience;
- Promote customer choice of new
technologies;
- Reduce greenhouse gases;
- Provide affordable and equitable costs
of electric service; and
- Use competitive processes for procuring
clean-energy resources
“As more customers adopt clean-energy technologies like solar
panels and energy storage equipment in their homes and businesses,
the grid will become much more complicated to operate,” said SCE
President Pedro Pizarro. “The DRP is our game plan to build a
state-of-the-art power network that is essential to assure
reliability, power quality, customer choice of new technologies and
to further reduce greenhouse gases.”
SCE’s filing also includes the company’s proposal to address the
following commission requirements:
- Evaluating the ability of the
distribution system to integrate Distributed Energy Resources and
development of tools to analyze the value of locations for those
resources.
- Development of demonstration
projects.
- Provision of data access.
- Assessment of tariff and contract
implications.
- Identification of safety
considerations.
- Description of barriers to deployment
of Distributed Energy Resources.
- Coordination of the DRP with SCE’s
general rate case.
- Phasing of next steps.
The company’s plan addresses all these requirements and proposes
other sweeping changes to the way it operates, while maintaining a
resilient, reliable and low-carbon power network that offers
customers a choice in how they consume and produce energy.
“We’re moving toward a ‘plug-and-play’ system,” said Pizarro.
“The coming power network will make it easier for customers to plug
in many types of energy technologies, whether it’s an electric
vehicle, solar panels or energy storage devices.”
About Southern California Edison
An Edison International (NYSE:EIX) company, Southern California
Edison is one of the nation’s largest electric utilities, serving a
population of nearly 14 million via 5 million customer accounts in
a 50,000-square-mile service area within Central, Coastal and
Southern California.
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version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20150701006602/en/
Southern California EdisonMedia Contact:David Song, (626)
302-2255orInvestor Relations:Scott Cunningham, (626) 302-2540
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