Designers and Engineers: frequently asked questions

Permanent Load Shift-Thermal Energy Storage (PLS-TES) Program incentives are available to electric customers in PG&E’s service territory. To qualify for the PLS-TES Program, an applicant must:

• Be a Bundled Service, Direct Access or Community Choice Aggregation customer
• Be billed on an PG&E Time-of-Use (TOU) rate schedule
• Have an installed interval or SmartMeter™, where interval data features and billing have been enabled

The PLS-TES Program will not provide incentives to a customer who has received additional TES incentives from other utility-funded programs.

No, the PLS-TES Program will not pay incentives if the grid already experiences 0 kW demand from a site during on-peak hours. The PLS-TES incentive is based on demand shift after accounting for on-site renewable for energy production.

Yes, refurbished tanks that are brought back online may be eligible for the PLS-TES Program provided they have not been operable for at least 3 years.

• Chilled water or other fluid
• Ice-on-coil
• Encapsulated Ice or Phase Change Material
• Ice Harvester/Chiller
• Ice Slurry

   

Permanent Load Shift-Thermal Energy Storage (PLS-TES) Program incentives are available to electric customers in PG&E's service territory. TES systems are required to operate daily during the summer on-peak periods. Eligible TES systems must shift load from the on-peak period to the off-peak period. Qualifying equipment includes, but is not limited to:

• Chilled water or other fluid
• Ice-on-coil (external or internal melt)
• Encapsulated ice or phase change material or ice harvester/chiller
• Ice slurry

Incentives are not available for fuel switching, adjustment of controls, maintenance service fees, refurbished equipment with the exception of tanks, and shifting achieved by best practices commissioning.

Note: Battery storage devices are not eligible for PG&E PLS-TES incentives. Battery storage may be eligible for an incentive under PG&E’s SGIP Program.

No, phase-change envelope material is not eligible for a PG&E PLS-TES incentive.

Customers must submit trend data to PG&E on a monthly basis for five years. See Appendix B of the PG&E PLS-TES Program Manual for a list of required trend points and detailed monitoring requirements.

Energy models will be used to determine a customer’s cooling load profile over a year (8,760 hours). From the profile, the day with the greatest total cooling load in the summer on-peak hours will be identified and the capacity of the TES system will be applied to the on-peak period for that day.

A conversion factor of 0.7 kW/ton will be applied to water-cooled chilled water plants and 1.2 kW/ton will be applied to air-cooled chilled water plants. The final, verified incentive amount for a TES system installation is $875/kW but can vary from the amount estimated in the application and/or the reserved incentive amount if there are changes in the design or operating parameters.

A step-by-step example incentive calculation is available in Appendix G of the PLS-TES Program Manual.

A customer will be entitled to the lesser of the project’s calculated load shift incentive and 50 percent of the project’s verified total project cost. There is also a PLS-TES Program incentive cap of $1.5 million per customer.

Customers have two options for receiving incentives. One option is to receive the incentive in a single installment after the final project verification. The second option is to receive the incentive in two installments:

1. Twenty-five percent of the Feasibility Study cost (up to $10,000) after sending the Commitment Letter.
2. Balance of the incentive is paid after the final project verification.
3. Refer to the PG&E PLS-TES Program Manual for details.