California Distributed Energy Summit

The Clean Coalition was a partner organization for the California Distributed Energy Summit, which took place on September 19-21, 2016 in Santa Monica, CA.

Much of California’s future energy will come from distributed assets. Legislation and a number of regulatory proceedings at the California Public Utilities Commissionpromise to increase funding for distributed energy assets, opening new opportunities for third party providers and end-users to deploy distributed energy resources (DER). Utilities are likewise investing hundreds of millions on new smartgrid technologies and control architectures to increase the flexibility and capability of their grids to handle the influx of these assets.

The California energy market is at the center of change that will have profound impacts on strategic directions and opportunities for utilities, solar PV, energy storage, demand response, and customers on multiple fronts.

TheCalifornia Distributed Energy Summit included thekey players driving California’s distributed energy future, while attendees learned about procurement and business opportunities currently available.

The event showcasedthe latest on:

• Forging a new regulatory framework in California – distributed resources plans (DRP) and Integration of DERproceedings.
• Seizing emerging DER opportunities in energy storage, the aggregated DER market, and data analytics.
• Grid modernization needs for the distributed energy future.
• Customer engagement – understanding customer needs and their constraints.
• California utility DRPand procurements.

The pre-summit briefing,Distributed Energy Economics & Finance, explored how the monetary value of distributed energy assets will be measured, what pricing models will be adopted and the implications for utility and third party provider business models.