Utility Dive: New York Regulators Address Data Access Issues in Bid to Grow Clean Energy Development

Utility Dive quoted AEE’s Danny Waggoner on improving data access to increase clean energy progress. Read excerpts below and the full story here.

Dive Brief:

• The New York Public Service Commission on April 15 adopted a new framework governing access to energy data, aiming to better enable energy service entities (ESEs) to develop new clean energy resources, products and technologies…
• Under the new framework, the PSC would authorize ESEs to access energy usage data with permission from the customer. Anonymized and aggregated data is also included in the new framework. The data authorization process is currently managed by individual utilities, and historically has not been efficient, according to Danny Waggoner, who manages Advanced Energy Economy's (AEE) regulatory work in New York.

Dive Insight:

New York is working to meet aggressive clean energy targets, and regulators see improved data access as a necessary tool to grow green resources on the grid…

Customer data has many uses, said Waggoner, including allowing a distributed energy resource (DER) provider to know how much energy a customer has used and how much they have fed back to the grid. 

System data can show energy companies what areas can accommodate more generation, and where DER exports will require grid upgrades. Load hosting maps will be important to develop electric vehicle charging stations, Waggoner said, and available data will include the capacity of individual transformers and substations. 

ESEs looking to access energy data could include solar providers, demand response aggregators, storage companies, and energy service companies providing retail sales.  The PSC's decision takes "all of the disparate data standards" governing how those groups access what data, "and rationalizes it all together in one matrix," said Waggoner…

The availability of better system data will allow DER providers "new opportunities to get extra value," said Waggoner, as New York has a system to pay DERs that contribute at times and locations where there is system needs…

Waggoner wrote AEE's comments on the data access proceeding, and said the decision is "very positive" for distributed resource providers. The group previously had concerns that cybersecurity requirements were too onerous in some instances, but over time "they are becoming a bit more rational since the PSC is also lowering other transaction costs."

Read the full story here.