PG&E expands eligibility requirements for community microgrids with regulators’ approval

Following approval from the California Public Utilities Commission, PG&E announced this week that more communities are now eligible to pursue microgrids as a means of building resilience, thanks to expanded eligibility requirements.

The announcement was predicated on an update to the Community Microgrid Enablement Tariff (CMET), which had previously allowed community microgrids only in CPUC-designated High Fire Threat Districts. This was to mitigate dangers posed by extreme weather and Public Safety Power Shutoff events. However, times change, and now PG&E has larger grid resilience efforts in mind.

Specifically, the update will help the construction of additional microgrids in the company’s northern and central California service area, as any communities within PG&E’s service area can now pursue them. Even before this, PG&E had worked with more than 36 communities and customers on options for developing microgrids.

“Microgrids are a critical part of the sustainability and climate-resilience goals of many of our customers and hometowns,” Quinn Nakayama, PG&E’s director of grid planning and innovation, said. “By expanding the rules around where these microgrids can be built, we’re able to remove barriers that would have prevented projects from moving forward, and instead work collaboratively to make these projects a reality.”

One such microgrid is under development in conjunction with the University of California, Berkeley. It is a net-zero energy, block-level microgrid situated in Oakland’s Fruitvale district, which serves as a verifiable case study. Dubbed EcoBlock, it will update participating homes with advanced energy efficiency measures, a solar-powered microgrid, shared electric vehicles, and new approaches to coordination.

Such measures also build on PG&E’s Community Microgrid Enablement Program, launched in April 2021 to support microgrid development around critical facilities in high-fire threat areas.