Use of Operating Agreements and Energy Storage to Reduce Photovoltaic Interconnection Costs: Conceptual Framework

This analysis was conducted as part of the Solar Energy Innovation Network (SEIN). SEIN is a collaborative research effort led by the National Renewable Energy Laboratory and supported by the U.S. Department of Energy’s Solar Energy Technologies Office. SEIN supports teams across the United States that are pursuing novel applications of solar and other distributed energy resources by providing critical technical expertise and facilitated stakeholder engagement, giving them the wide range of tools necessary to realize their innovations in real-world contexts. Teams are composed of diverse stakeholders to ensure all perspectives are heard, key barriers are identified, and the resulting solutions are robust and ready for replication in other contexts.

The writing of this report was initiated and led by a team from Rhode Island that participated in Round 2 of SEIN. The team was led by the Office of Energy Resources, which was joined in the effort by National Grid (Rhode Island) and the Clean Energy States Alliance. The team sought to elucidate the potential value of adding battery energy storage to solar projects to reduce distribution upgrade costs and optimize solar hosting capacity.

This report is supported by analysis conducted by the National Renewable Energy Laboratory and Lawrence Berkley National Laboratory, which is detailed in a companion report, Use of Operating Agreements and Energy Storage to Reduce Photovoltaic Interconnection Costs: Technical and Economic Analysis (McLaren et al. 2022).