Public Service Company of Colorado (PSCo), an operating company subsidiary of Xcel Energy Inc., has issued a request for third-party pilot concepts and proposals as a component of its 2024 Distribution System Plan, to solicit ideas and proposals for conducting pilots to address distribution system needs.
PSCo says submitted pilots should include one or more of the following goals:
- Integrate distributed energy resources (DER), non-wires alternatives (NWA) and emerging technologies
- Improve distribution system performance
- Minimize distribution system costs
- Increase distribution system reliability
- Reduce greenhouse gas emissions including from reduced curtailment of renewable energy
- Increase distribution system resiliency
- Provide benefits to disproportionately impacted communities
Total budgets can range from $250,000 to $2 million, PSCo said, but at the concept paper stage it encourages proposed budgets to range from $150,000 to $1.5 million. Additionally, PSCo included Areas of Interest in its request, laying out key focus areas and use cases it may pursue through the pilots. The company noted that requests not addressing the areas are “not encouraged”:
- Outage prevention, restoration, and resilience
- System visibility and control to prepare for renewables and DERs
- Increase in utilization of distribution capacity due to high electrification and DER growth
- Machine learning and artificial intelligence for novel approaches to future applications
The deadline for initial concept submissions is February 19, with pilots expected to be initiated by 2025.
