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Distributed Energy Infrastructure Analysis and Pilot Project for New Jersey and Pennsylvania Targeted in the Small and Medium Size Commercial and Industrial Sectors

The objective of the proposal is to evaluate the baseline of existing distributed energy resources (DER) for all market segments and the financial, regulatory and technical barriers to expanding DER in New Jersey (NJ) and Pennsylvania (PA). This baseline evaluation will frame the issues that policy makers in NJ and PA will need to address in the immediate future in order to overcome existing and future barriers for DER. A task outcome will be the development of a policy manual to expand DER in the target commercial and industrial sectors in NJ and PA. A part of this manual development will be accomplished analysis of a pilot project that demonstrates effective incentives for several DER technologies and tools. The pilot project will deploy these technologies and tools within the small to medium commercial sectors in selected load constrained areas in NJ and PA. The pilot project will be run in conjunction and coordination with PJM’s Economic Load Management program. The incentives to be developed will be in addition to the existing PJM incentives. A cost benefits analysis of the expanded incentives will be evaluated.

The goal of this project is to expand the use of DER as a resource planning and acquisition tool. This will be accomplished by linking up with other state programs in this area through NASEO and NARUC to develop state reciprocal programs to expand the market and increase the dissemination of information for DER. The dissemination of information and policy for the Mid-Atlantic States and Northeast States will be accomplished through forums for the states established through the National Council on Electricity Policy (NCEP) and NARUC.

Implemented effectively, a significant percentage of the power generation and load management in NJ and PA as well as other Mid-Atlantic States can be obtained from DER technology and tools. The recent blackout highlights the fact that the grid needs to be smarter and DER in one tool that can help in this task. In order to achieve this goal, policy makers must have a comprehensive understanding of how DER can fit into the existing market structure and electric infrastructure. DER can bring substantial benefits to the States energy systems. These benefits include lower costs, air quality improvements, enhanced system reliability and job creation. On of the areas to be evaluated is how DER can make the grid smarter and reduce the cost and size of future transmission expansions. However, there are significant barriers that need to be addressed to advance DER.

NJBPU Office of Clean Energy with PADEP Office of Energy will be the primary sponsors and project managers. PJM’s Load Management Program will be a key partner with in-kind services already part of this program. Madison Energy Consultants will be the lead technical support, with major assistance from the Center for Energy, Economic and Environmental Policy at the Bloustein School of Planning and Public Policy at Rutgers University. The outreach dissemination across the states will be coordinated through NCEP and the regulatory reciprocal will be coordinated through NARUC.

The overall timeframe for the proposal is one year. The overall funding request cost is $300,000 and the cost share co-funding is over $1,000,000.

Contact:

NJ Board of Public Utilities, Office of Clean Energy (NJBPU)
P. O. Box 350
Trenton, NJ 08625-0350
(609) 777-3335
Contact: Mike Winka
Email: michael.winka@bpu.state.nj.us

Partners:

PA Dept. of Environmental Protection, Office of Energy (PADEP)
National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners (NARUC)
Center for Energy, Economic and Environmental Policy, Rutgers (CEEEP)
Madison Energy Consultants (MEC)
National Council on Electricity Policy (NCEP)
PJM Conective

Cost:

Total project cost: $1,300,000
STAC-DOE portion: $300,000
Participant portion: $1,000,000

Statement of Work and Status

Quarterly Reports

Below are the quarterly reports as provided by the project to STAC, excluding some non-substantive and financial information. All available reports are listed below.

Last Updated: 08/29/07