Sunnova to Deploy Distributed Energy Systems to Support Local Grid Needs in California

Sunnova Energy International, an energy as a service (EaaS) provider, will deploy energy from its aggregated Adaptive Homes to alleviate peak capacity needs and strengthen the grid in a predominantly low to moderate income (LMI) community within Pacific Gas and Electric Company’s Northern California service area.

Sunnova’s aggregated portfolio of customers with solar plus storage systems defers the need for PG&E to upgrade the distribution infrastructure at certain substations cost-effectively extending the useful life of that existing grid infrastructure, while accommodating for customer energy demand. PG&E’s annual distribution resource plan (DRP) identifies areas that could benefit from distributed energy resource deployments that would avoid or defer traditional electric distribution system upgrades and forecasts the load growth within the service territory.

The DRP indicated that targeted areas of the distribution system will require increased capacity for only a handful of hours per year, and Sunnova’s distributed assets are perfectly positioned to efficiently meet that need while supporting clean energy and homeowner resiliency needs.

Since the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) established the distribution investment deferral framework (DIDF) in 2018, the CPUC has approved over 34 MW of battery storage contracts for the IOUs with 16 MWs awarded in PG&E’s service area.

In the past five years, the California residential market has deployed over 530 MWs worth of battery storage systems and half of those deployed systems are in PG&E’s service area. The annual DIDF process identifies, reviews and selects opportunities where existing or new BTM systems can be leveraged to alleviate future grid stress.