Clean energy groups want New York utilities to provide more granular data in REV filings

Dive Brief:

Advanced Energy Economy and other groups have criticized New York utilities for being slow to reveal substation-level demand forecasts, arguing more granular data is needed to restructure the state's utility sector.
AEE submitted comments to the Public Service Commission this month targeting supplemental Distributed System Implementation Plans filed by Con Edison and Orange & Rockland utilities, arguing they appear "particularly reluctant" to reveal the data.
DSIPs filed by utilities in the summer of last year sparked concerns among distributed energy providers that they lacked actionable data; supplemental filings in November were intended to allay some of those concerns.

Dive Insight:

New York's goal of reimagining the utility sector includes bringing a wide range of distributed energy providers into the marketplace and finding new ways to compensate them. But reaching that point that will require utilities to disclose large amounts of very specific data, something some groups say is not yet happening.

As part of the REV process, utilities in New York filed DSIP plans in June and then supplemented them in November. But some renewables advocates say there is still not enough information for third parties to move forward on solutions. What they want, according to the Advanced Energy Economy Institute (AEEI), is substation-level forecasts for all utilities, in addition to more aggressive timelines for the transition.

"Con Edison and O&R appear particularly reluctant to develop and provide substation-level 8760 forecasts," AEEI said in its comments. "We recommend that the commission press the utilities to move forward with developing these forecasts. Detailed and granular forecasts are highly useful to DER providers, and the fact that at least one New York utility already produces them suggests that it should not be difficult for sophisticated utilities such as Con Edison to follow suit."

Central Hudson already provides that data, AEEI said, developing bottom-up 8760 load forecasts at the substation level.

AEEI's comments were made on behalf of Advanced Energy Economy, the Alliance for Clean Energy New York, and the Northeast Clean Energy Council. AEEI is the nonprofit organization affiliated with Advanced Energy Economy.

The groups also argue the supplemental DSIP "does not provide a clear path toward identifying and developing systemwide DERs," and that the data required by regulators "does not contain sufficient plans for improving load forecasting methods. ... The Supplemental DSIP indicates that the utilities have not been engaged in sufficient efforts to automate their interconnection processes."

A lack of actionable information was somewhat expected in the first DSIP filings.

"In a lot of cases, you’re not going to find the actionable information in the DSIPs themselves" to optimally site DER technologies, Danny Waggoner, senior associate at Advanced Energy Economy, told Utility Dive at the time. "Providers still have to go through a process."

However, there were hopes supplemental filings would address these issues. AEEI and other groups want regulators to demand revised supplemental DSIPs be filed by July, "given the potential impact of the Supplemental DSIP on utility investments and the trajectory of DERs in New York State."