Persistent social disparities in the adoption of distributed energy resources (DERs) have prompted calls for enabling more equitable uptake. However, there are indications that limits inherent to grid infrastructure may hinder DER adoption. In this study we analysed grid limits to new DER integration across California’s two largest utility territories. We found that grid limits reduce access to solar photovoltaics to less than half of households served by these two utilities, and may hinder California’s electric vehicle adoption and residential load electrification goals. We connected these results to demographic characteristics and found that grid limits also exacerbate existing inequities: households in increasingly Black-identifying and disadvantaged census block groups have disproportionately less access to new solar photovoltaic capacity based on circuit hosting capacity. Our results illuminate the need for equity goals to be an input in the design of policies for prioritizing grid upgrades.

在采用分布式能源 (DER) 方面持续存在的社会差异促使人们呼吁实现更公平的吸收。然而，有迹象表明，电网基础设施固有的限制可能会阻碍 DER 的采用。在这项研究中，我们分析了加利福尼亚州两个最大公用事业地区新 DER 集成的电网限制。我们发现，电网限制减少了这两家公用事业服务的不到一半家庭使用太阳能光伏的机会，并可能阻碍加州的电动汽车采用和住宅负载电气化目标。我们将这些结果与人口特征联系起来，发现网格限制也会加剧现有的不平等：根据电路托管容量，越来越多的黑人识别和弱势人口普查块组中的家庭获得新的太阳能光伏发电容量的机会大大减少。我们的结果表明，公平目标需要成为优先考虑电网升级的政策设计的投入。