Eligibility

There are four types of eligibility that must all be met in order to participate:

  • Customer Eligibility
  • Demand Response Program Eligibility
  • Project Eligibility
  • Technology Eligibility

Customer Eligibility

A Customer is the party that is listed on the PG&E electric account. The Customer may have one or
many services agreement IDs (SAID) under the account. The ADR Program is open to all Non-Residential Customers who:

  • Must commit to participating in an ADR eligible DR program for three years for FastTrack applications and three or five years for Standard applications depending on the option selected.
  • Receive electric services from PG&E or
  • Are Direct Access (DA) and Community Choice Aggregation (CCA) Customers who purchase
    electricity from a load-serving entity other than PG&E provided the Customer enrolls in an
    ADR eligible DR program that also accepts DA or CCA Customers.
  • Have a PG&E interval meter installed at the site associated with the SAID. A site is defined
    as a single free-standing building or structure; an individual utility interval meter and must
    be where the retrofit or installation takes place.
  • Have existing sites with 12 months of billing and usage history for the SAID. 24-36 months
    of billing and usage history is ideal for sites with intermittent loads, such as pumping or
    agricultural irrigation and in some cases. An alternative for new construction projects is to provide a building energy model for review
  • Have not been paid for PG&E ADR incentives in the past 7.5 years
  • Have facilities in the follow sectors for FastTrack application projects:
    o Office
    o Retail
    o Quick serve restaurant
    o Conditioned warehouse
    o Grocery

Demand Response Program Eligibility

Customer must already be enrolled or become enrolled in an eligible DR Program and participate for 3 years for FastTrack applications and 3 or 5 years for Standard applications depending on the option selected. Eligible DR programs include:

Project Eligibility

For the project to be eligible for the ADR Program incentives it must meet the following criteria:

  • ADR controls are new to the site/SAID and the control which enables DR is not already installed
  • The system does not require manual intervention to initiate the pre-programmed load change sequence during a DR event
  • Provides incremental kilowatt (kW) and kilowatt hour (kWh) load changes relative to existing (baseline) equipment
  • Projects installed and operational by October 31, 2023
  • Can include multiple project sites in a single project application, provided that the requirements listed below apply:

o Sites can have entirely different DR measures, operating hours, and energy use profile
o The same Customer must own and/or occupy the Customer project sites
o Each site must have a unique service agreement identification (SAID) and be in PG&E’s service territory
o Customer must be able to initiate DR event participation at each facility or site individually, based on the SAID with their control system.

Cloud-based Projects and Stranded Assets

The CPUC permits cloud-based ADR projects for non-residential small to medium business customers which PG&E defines as a SAID associated with a project with under 200 kW average demand over the previous 12 months. These projects must communicate and demonstrate operability using the current OpenADR protocol and pull the event signal from PG&E for participation in PG&E DR Programs. More information about the OpenADR protocol is found at www.openadr.org. The communication protocol between the cloud and the site does not have to follow the OpenADR protocol. In a cloud-based approach, a Project Sponsor’s cloud or a Customer’s own remote server or energy management system (EMS) can act as a central control hub to execute DR events for one or more sites. Cloud-based ADR projects must include a pre-paid, three-year cloud subscription for FastTrack applications and three or five years for Standard applications depending on the option selected.

Small agricultural pumps are also eligible as a cloud-based ADR project that meet the above criteria with the following clarifications:

  • Pump size requirement is based on a per SAID basis
  • Pump size is less than or equal to 200 kW max peak summer demand (summer includes June to September)
  • Max peak summer demand is based on three years of billing and usage data if available. At a minimum 24 months of billing and usage history is needed due to the intermittent operational characteristics of agricultural pumping

Technology Eligibility

In order to be eligible, ADR control technology requirements include:

  1. Communicate and demonstrate operability with OpenADR communication protocols and standards (OpenADR 2.0a or 2.0b).
  2. Previously demonstrated DR capability
    • Previously installed and operational at a customer site; or
    • Have been evaluated in an independent assessment; or
    • Be currently installed and available for evaluation by program staff at a site in PG&E territory or other location easily accessed by the program staff, and where both pre- and post-project conditions are documented or currently verifiable.
  3. Under manufacturer warranty for a minimum of three years
  4. The ability to poll SEEload on a one-minute interval if participating in a PG&E DR Program
    • An ADR control/VEN using cellular for a communication pathway or with a pay as you go data plan have the option to poll the DRAS at intervals greater than one minute but at least five minutes less than the notification time window of their DR program. In these cases, the Customer assumes all risk of missed event notifications, changes, cancellations, and any other missed information payloads transmitted between SEEload and the Customer’s resources.
    • Customer assumes the lost revenue risk due to missed notifications.
  5. Technology must have the ability to set the market context field to recognize all DR Programs which commonly result in either a blank or wildcard character (*) in that field.

DR Event Signaling

The OpenADR ADR controls or cloud service must pull the automated OpenADR DR event signal directly from SEEload where PG&E is the demand response provider (DRP). Customers participating in other ADR eligible DR programs are encouraged to pull an OpenADR event signal from their DRP/Aggregator.

  • A DRP/Aggregator does have the option to pull the event OpenADR signal from SEEload and can send either via OpenADR or a proprietary signal to the Customer, but is then assumes any risk and/or penalty for non-performance due to signal issues between the DRP/Aggregator and the customer.
  • Projects utilizing a cloud-based ADR solution will need to adhere the cloud based eligibility policies.