The California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) approved a decision October 29 directing the state’s three largest investor-owned electric utilities to develop a common framework for coordinating customer batteries, electric vehicles, and other distributed energy resources.
The decision requires Pacific Gas and Electric, Southern California Edison, and San Diego Gas & Electric to submit a joint application within 12 months proposing a distributed energy resources orchestration framework. Their proposal must explain how utilities could use customer-owned resources to address local grid needs, improve reliability, and potentially defer infrastructure upgrades.
Framework for grid services
Distributed energy resources include rooftop solar, batteries, electric vehicles, demand-response technologies, and flexible building systems. The utilities must develop procedures for identifying distribution-grid needs and coordinating resources that can shift electricity use or supply power.
The framework must address communications standards, interoperability, cybersecurity, customer protections, and compensation. Utilities must also consider participation by customers, aggregators, community choice aggregators, and other energy service providers, while addressing potential conflicts of interest and barriers to participation.
Changes to distribution planning
Beginning with the 2028–2029 planning cycle, utilities must add a fourth scenario to their annual distribution plans. It will assess how flexible customer demand could affect infrastructure needs, alongside existing low-, base-, and high-demand forecasts.
The utilities must hold a stakeholder workshop within 120 days of the decision and submit technical proposals on incorporating flexible demand into planning.
Deadlines and costs
A stakeholder working group will develop recommendations for the framework. The utilities must submit a draft report within eight months, a final report within 10 months, and their joint application within 12 months. They must also describe their readiness to implement the framework and identify proposed technology investments and funding sources.
The decision allows the utilities to record incremental application-development expenses in memorandum accounts, subject to a combined $500,000 cap and later review. It does not authorize major technology investments or set new customer compensation rates.
The framework could give aggregators and other energy service providers more consistent access to grid-service opportunities. Its value to utilities and ratepayers will depend on whether coordinated customer resources can reliably meet local needs and reduce costs.
Implications for California
The decision advances California’s efforts to use distributed energy resources as alternatives to conventional electricity infrastructure.
It follows recently enacted legislation intended to expand virtual-power-plant participation and improve distribution-grid utilization.