A decade of increasing DER penetration in a variety of markets has demonstrated that there is a problem with how we treat the costs of upgrading the distribution system to enable DER integration. That problem is the tried-and-true regulatory tool of cost causation, which served us well in the old paradigm of large, centralized generation. In this talk we will discuss the origins of cost causation in our industry, how it has impacted DG, the evolution of responses to the resulting challenges and the path forward.
