Community Microgrid Enablement Program (CMEP)

Technical Support

• PG&E provides a number of self-service resources on www.pge.com/resilience, including:
  • CMEP Resilience Planning Guide
  • Community Microgrid Technical Best Practices
  • Planning tools and interconnection information
  • Information on federal, state, and local incentives and financing
• PG&E will provide Enhanced Technical Support for Community Microgrids from concept exploration through project completion. See How the Program Works for further information.

Financial Support

CMEP will cover the cost of certain PG&E equipment necessary to enable the safe islanding of an eligible community microgrid, up to a cap of $3 million per project.

Examples of the types of equipment to be covered include:

• Equipment to enable a section of the grid to disconnect from the larger grid (e.g., isolation devices)
• Equipment to operate the microgrid (e.g., PG&E’s microgrid controller)
• Equipment to ensure it is safe to operate (e.g., fault protection devices and hardening)

The CMEP program does not cover generation or storage-related costs, nor the costs to upgrade the hosting capacity of the distribution or transmission system to accommodate the community microgrid.

CMEP funding is subject to availability, and is available through the duration of the program, which is currently approved through December 31st, 2022.

Other Support

The CPUC has approved PG&E’s pro forma Community Microgrid Enablement Tariff (CMET) (PDF, 159 KB) for use on an experimental basis as part of the Community Microgrid Enablement Program. This document addresses eligibility, roles and responsibilities, and the relationship to existing tariffs.

CMEP is designed to serve the communities most in need of resilience. To be eligible for CMEP cost offsets, the project must meet certain criteria.

• Location: The project must be located within PG&E’s electric service territory and interconnected to PG&E’s electric distribution system. In addition, at least one customer served by the microgrid must be located either
  • In a Tier 2 or 3 HFTD at the time of CMEP application
  • In an area that has been impacted by a PSPS event
  • In an area determined prone to outages¹
• Customers served: The project must meet the needs of at least one critical facility and at least one additional customer within the electrical boundary of the microgrid.
• Community microgrid parameters: A community microgrid implemented in PG&E’s existing electricity grids must meet certain parameters
  • It must include one or more energy-producing resources that do not exceed 20 MW in aggregate.
  • It must act as a single, controllable entity.
  • It must be able to connect to, disconnect from, and run in parallel with larger portions of the electrical grid.
  • It must be able to maintain electrical supply and service quality when isolated to connected customers during larger grid disturbances.
  • Finally, project resources must be interconnected to PG&E’s distribution system pursuant to PG&E’s WDT and/or Electric Rule 21, as applicable.
• Community Interest: The applicant must provide PG&E with a written letter from any local government, Tribe, or CCA, as applicable, with jurisdiction over or service within the proposed project electrical boundary. This letter must express this entity’s interest in the project.
• No prior PSPS mitigation work that excludes the area from potential future PSPS events: The project hasn’t been excluded from all reasonably anticipated potential future PSPS events due to other PSPS mitigation activities.

The Community Microgrid Enablement Tariff (PDF, 159 KB) requires a pre-application report and applicant experience.

¹ Defined for this purpose as the top 1% Worst Performing Circuits excluding Major Event Days from PG&E’s Annual Electric Reliability Report, in either the AIDI or AIFI category, in either of the last 2 years.

PG&E will prioritize two categories of projects.

• Disadvantaged Vulnerable Communities – PG&E will prioritize projects in which at least one customer served by the microgrid is located in an area that meets at least one of the following criteria:
  • Disadvantaged Communities as defined by the most recent version of CalEnviroScreen
  • Tribal lands
  • Zip codes with more than 50% of residents enrolled or eligible for the California Alternate Rates for Energy (“CARE”) rate
  • Zip codes identified as “Rural”, per the Goldsmith Modification
• PG&E has created a separate funding bucket specifically for the use of disadvantaged and vulnerable communities, within the allocated budget for distribution upgrade cost offsets. Additionally, PG&E will prioritize access to our technical support resources, in the event there is insufficient capacity to support all project requests.
• Projects that are most urgent for public health, safety, and public interest – This prioritization will be made through an assessment of the urgency of the risks facing the community, the timeliness / executability of the solution, and the potential impact to communities. PG&E will prioritize Enhanced Technical Support for projects based on the following criteria:
  • Previously impacted by PSPS or significant outage events
  • Future potential for PSPS / outages
  • Number of critical facilities served, and benefitting scope of the facilities
  • Benefit to disadvantaged and vulnerable communities
  • Higher levels of renewable energy
  • Grid feasibility and level of effort given grid features in the area

How will projects in these communities be prioritized? PG&E will prioritize access to Enhanced Technical Support, in the event there is insufficient capacity to support all project requests.

CMEP’s Enhanced Technical Support is structured in 3 stages, each with distinct objectives, and serves to facilitate the development of a multi-customer microgrid from initial concept exploration, through solution assessment, and finally to solution execution.

1. Project Vetting

Goal: To help you determine what resilience approach may best meet your community’s specific needs.

What’s involved? First, a CMEP Resilience Coordinator will work with you to collect basic information regarding your community’s goals and needs, as well as specific project characteristics, if known. Then, a subject matter expert will help you understand your community resilience options at a high level through one or more conversations.

2. Solution Assessment

Goal: To support your community and your technical/engineering partner(s) in planning and designing a robust multi-customer critical facility resilience solution.

What’s involved? Once it is established that a multi-customer community microgrid is desired, PG&E will provide project-specific technical guidance and design support to you and your technical/engineering partner(s). PG&E’s Community Microgrid Technical Best Practices (PDF, 1.1 MB) will be a valuable resource in this stage. The stage begins with a technical consultation and culminates in a Microgrid Islanding Study to ensure the operational safety and stability of the microgrid during islanded mode.

Note that the interconnection of any Distributed Energy Resources within the proposed microgrid are studied separately from the Microgrid Islanding Study and are independent of the CMEP process. Applicants will need to submit an Interconnection Application for any such DERs, if they have not already done so.

3. Solution Execution

Goal: To ensure that a) the appropriate agreements are in place regarding the cost and ownership of the facility upgrades and the operation of the microgrid, and b) the execution of your multi-customer microgrid is coordinated across all PG&E functions.

What’s involved? This final stage involves development and execution of a Project Special Facilities Agreement which will identify the costs and ownership of the necessary facility upgrades, a Microgrid Operating Agreement, and coordination of the work on PG&E’s distribution system.