Battery Energy Storage Facilities in California
The Electric Safety and Reliability Branch (ESRB) is responsible for ensuring the safe and reliable operation of electric, communication, and electric generating facilities, and energy storage systems through the enforcement of the CPUC's General Orders (GO) and Public Utilities Codes. ESRB achieves this through auditing electric, communication, and generation facilities (e.g., natural gas, solar, wind, geothermal), and energy storage systems and investigating safety and reliability related incidents.
The Generation and Energy Storage Section (GESS) of ESRB is responsible for enforcing GO 167-C to ensure safe and reliable electric generation and energy storage in California.
Senate Bill 1383 (Hueso) modified the Public Utilities Code 761.3 and expanded the CPUC's authority to enforce operations and maintenance standards for Energy Storage Systems (ESS) owned or operated by electrical corporations in California. The Commission's Safety and Enforcement Division (SED) implemented this mandate to expand its regulatory authority by issuing Resolution ESRB-13. That Resolution, passed on March 13, 2025, modified GO 167 to its current version, GO 167-C, Enforcement of Maintenance and Operation Standards for Electric Generating Facilities and Energy Storage Systems. The predominant ESS technology comes in the form of battery energy storage systems (BESS).
GESS of ESRB has conducted a survey of energy storage systems to prepare for the addition of ESS to GO 167 in order to collect information from the existing and future planned ESS facilities that serve the investor-owned utilities’ (IOU) rate payers. The data generated from those surveys has helped to illustrate the energy storage landscape that now falls under the purview of GO 167-C.
BESS Surveys Results and Other BESS Related Data
All current and known future planned GO 167-C jurisdictional BESS use, or will use, lithium-ion technology. Presented here are analysis of BESS surveys and other BESS related data conducted by GESS