Dive Summary:

• Monday, the California Public Utilities Commission proposed that the state’s three biggest investor-owned utilities procure 1.3 gigawatts (GW) of energy storage by 2020.
• Pacific Gas & Electric, Southern California Edison, and San Diego Gas & Electric will have to incorporate the new energy storage goal in the state’s evolving utility structure.
• The proposal involves many metrics and measures and will implement a “reverse auction” market mechanism to incorporate energy storage into the transmission and system-wide procurement process, in addition to advance distribution system planning and customer incentive programs.

From the article:
“…there’s a whole universe of California energy storage projects that will want to be added to the mix. PG&E is building a DOE grant-backed, 300-megawatt, 10-hour compressed air energy storage (CAES) system in the Central Valley, and has several megawatt-scale storage projects using sodium-sulfur batteries from Japan’s NGK and power electronics and controls systems from Chicago-based S&C Electric Company.”