Overview
The Public Service Commission of the District of Columbia (DCPSC) is seeking proposals in response to a Request for Proposals (RFP) to fund a Solar Aggregation and Advanced Inverter Pilot Project. The DCPSC is seeking projects demonstrating the benefits of advanced inverter equipment, including communications and the expansion of solar hosting capacity. Proposals should provide insights to assist the Commission in identifying technologies and policies that can be implemented in the District to modernize the distribution energy delivery system for increased sustainability and address grid integration challenges.
Proposals should identify and design a project site in the District that can aggregate existing and/or new solar distributed energy resource (DER) projects that use IEEE 1547-2018 standard complaint inverter systems to automatically manage hosting capacity and communications. Offerors will be responsible for managing the operation and maintenance of the DER aggregation, including generation output, inverter functionalities, and customer satisfaction. They must also develop and execute a stakeholder and customer engagement plan.
The pilot project should maximize solar hosting capacity and demonstrate the benefits of the project to the participants, including any additional incentive available to lower income participants. Additionally, the project must show effective alternatives to standard telemetry equipment currently required by the electric utility company and show distribution-level grid benefits.
Proposals in response to this RFP are due on
JUNE 13, 2024, no later than 4 pm Eastern. The DCPSC may extend this deadline if necessary. Legal entities eligible to apply for this RFP include (but are not limited to):
- Corporations, partnerships, and/or associations
- Private enterprises
- Nonprofits, including those with 501 (c)(3) or 501(c)(4) determinations
- Public-private partnerships and joint ventures comprising government agencies and private enterprises
Background
As a result of the
Pepco Holdings, Inc.-Exelon merger approved by the DCPSC, a $21.55 million Pilot Project Fund Subaccount was created to be used to support energy delivery system modernization pilot projects. A
Governance Board is responsible for reviewing and recommending innovative pilot projects and distributing those funds.
The solar aggregation and advanced inverter pilot project is the second of four such projects fund to further the goals of
PowerPath DC, as well as the District’s clean energy and climate goals.