Community Distributed Generation

Communities interested in cleaner energy, as well as greater control over their electric supply and reliability, are increasingly turning to microgrids — miniature power systems that serve an individual facility or area with electricity, either on its own or in concert with a larger power grid. Typically, a microgrid consists of energy generation and energy storage that can power a building or community and can be disconnected from the energy grid.Continue Reading Microgrids: Placing Energy in the Hands of the Consumer

Since the New York State Public Service Commission (“Commission”) first authorized the Community Distributed Generation (CDG) program in 2015, CDG Sponsors—the entities that organize, own and/or operate CDG projects—have faced an uphill battle in explaining the program, marketing it to customers and streamlining the energy billing process. The confusion arises first and foremost because CDG customers currently receive only bill credits, not renewable electricity or the environmental attributes of that electricity. This is further complicated by the fact that credits are typically denominated on the bill in kilowatt hours and are allocated in a cumbersome manner, whereby the utility first applies credits to a customer’s utility bill, but then the customer separately pays for a portion of those credits at a discounted rate (the “CDG Savings Rate”) to a third party – the CDG Sponsor – through a second bill. In addition to creating market confusion, this two-step process imposes unnecessary customer management and billing costs.
Continue Reading New York State Public Service Commission Modernizes Community Solar Billing Procedures