CCA Digest
CALIFORNIA Roundup, June 2015
A Message from LEAN's Executive Director
Happy Summer Everyone!
We continue to monitor and support City and County investigations of CCA programs which are moving forward all over the state. Some of the big issues right now are management models, sources of upfront financing, and some regulatory nit picks that are, as always, hard to explain but could be important to CCA sustainability. See below for more information on happenings at the CPUC.
The CCA conference in Los Angeles sponsored by LEAN Energy and the Local Government Commission on May 18 was a huge success! Dozens of California communities were represented and we all got a lot of good information and ideas about CCA opportunities and risks. We hope to plan something similar in northern CA so stay tuned for later this fall.
Thanks to those of you who were able to join us for the June 12 LEAN Energy market call! This digest summarizes the topics from that call plus a few other announcements. If you are a LEAN member or considering membership, please join us for our next market call on Friday, July 10th. Please see webinar link on the right to register.
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Highlights of CCA Program Developments in California
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Key Issues, Opportunities and Challenges
CCA Management Models An increasingly prominent part of the CCA discussion these days is how CCA programs should be managed and by whom. A central part of the conversation focuses on proposals by California Clean Power (CCP), which has been meeting with elected officials in many jurisdictions. In the proposals that have been public, CCP agrees to manage all aspects of the program, assume market risk and provide fixed payments in trade for all program revenues. These terms are appealing to some jurisdictions, especially those that do not have expertise or easy access to capital. LEAN Energy and others have urged local officials to make sure they get good analysis before they make any decisions to assure program sustainability and head off misunderstandings about risks, costs and relative responsibilities of this new, fully outsourced model. The County of San Mateo recently commissioned an analyses of the model as part of their technical study; the analysis points out both benefits and potential risks of the model. In addition, students at Stanford University recently studied the issue, using the city of Los Altos as a test subject. The presentation slides provide an overview of their presentation.
California iBank
Many communities in California find it difficult to handle the start-up costs of CCA implementation, even though these costs are recoverable soon after program launch. LEAN has re-engaged the California Infrastructure Bank and help may be on the way! The California Infrastructure and Economic Development Bank (iBank), a state agency, is eager to work with local communities--especially those with struggling economies--to determine whether they qualify for subsidized loans or credit guarantees for CCA start-up costs. This is great news for municipalities concerned about financing. Contact Kim Malcolm at LEAN Energy for more information. Wastewater Utility Finding A California Appellate Court has just found that a city's wastewater utility payments to the city for shared infrastructure and employee time was not an improper transfer of funds and did not violate Proposition 218. This has implications for CCAs that may share infrastructure with cities or counties (such as the model underway in Lancaster, CA), or purchase goods and services from them. Read more here.
San Francisco CCA Referendum
The IBEW Local 1245 is sponsoring legislation in San Francisco that would prohibit CCAs from referring to any energy resources as "green" unless they are "Bucket 1" renewables products or power from the City's Hetch Hetchy hydro-electric project. The initiative has until July 6th to garner enough signatures for the ballot.
The IBEW's press release states a concern over the proposed contract with Shell Energy North America (SENA) and the use of unbundled RECs to improve the green attributes of portfolios. Unsurprisingly, the measure does not require similar disclosures by Pacific Gas and Electric Company, although PG&E also purchases RECs and energy supplies from SENA. Because of historic purchases, PG&E is also able to classify some of its unbundled RECs as satisfying "Bucket 1" resource requirements, when by today's standards they would be "Bucket 3."
Some are predicting this local initiative is a warm-up for a statewide ballot measure.
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Regulatory and Legislative Happenings
At the CPUC... LEAN Energy, along with CCAs from Marin, Sonoma and Lancaster met in recent weeks with CPUC Commissioners Michael Picker, Liane Randolph and Michael Florio; the meetings with Commissioners Peterman and Sandoval are upcoming. We provided an overview of CCA activity around the state with a message that CCA is no longer a "local experiment" but a valuable -- and so far very successful -tool for local governments to meet Climate Action Plan goals without subsidies from local taxes, all of which serve the Governor's energy policy objectives. A similar meeting with key staff at the Governors Office was also productive in sharing that message and yielded several good ideas and follow up opportunities. We plan to meet with other public officials in the coming month with this important message.
Things move slowly at the CPUC but here are some updates:
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Carlsbad Power Purchase Agreement --
The CPUC approved SDG&E's PPA for power from a new gas-fired plant to be built in the San Diego area. It is unclear how this decision may affect the prospects for CCA competitiveness, although many local groups, including the ALJ, argued that the plant is not needed and that the utility should solicit renewable resources instead.
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PCIA Vintaging/ERRA
(R 14-04-024) --
Marin Clean Energy (MCE) and Lancaster Choice Energy
(LCE) have opposed PG&E's proposal to calculate a new "PCIA" exit fee for individual CCA customers as inconsistent with Commission CCA rules.
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Residential Rate Design (R 12-06-013)
-- As we reported in last month's digest, the CPUC is considering rate design changes that may reduce conservation incentives and impose hardship on customers with inelastic demand. Commissioner Florio has proposed an alternate decision that would soften the blow by developing a time-of-use pilot (rather than a wholesale change immediately) and "flatter" rate tiers than the ALJ proposes.
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SCE CARE
Rates/PCIA --
LEAN, LCE and MCE filed protest letters
to SCE's proposal to impose the PCIA exit fee on low income.
At the California Legislature:
If you would like more information or want to join our regulatory and legislative alliances, please contact Kim Malcolm [email protected]
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We'd like to extend an enthusiastic thanks to all our members, whether you're new on the scene or renewing your membership. Your support is critical to our success, and to the success of CCA everywhere.
And WELCOME to Recurrent Energy--our newest supporter! We're so happy to have you on board.
What?
You say you're not a member yet?! You can join through our website
sign-up form, or contact LEAN's Administrative Coordinator, Alison Elliott, at [email protected].
Click
here for our membership flyer information. Or
here for our quick digital brochure, explaining why the work we do is so important.
You can see logos of all our current members on our website HOME page. Please take the time to peruse their websites--you may find some important contacts there.
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Odds and Ends
Green Power Communities
The Environmental Protection Agency has recognized the County of Marin, and cities of Richmond, Belvedere, Corte Madera, Fairfax, Larkspur, Mill Valley, Ross, San Anselmo, Tiburon, and Novato as Green Power Communities in 2015, for choosing to use MCE's renewable power. Congratulations!
Educational Workshops Available
Would a workshop on CPUC regulation or an informational CCA webinar be useful for your working group? LEAN Energy can help!
To inquire or schedule a session, contact Alison Elliott aelliott@leanenergyus
Our Next Monthly Market Call
Friday, July 10th, 10-11 am
Join us to hear about all the latest developments in the CA marketplace. Contact Alison Elliott for more information.
[email protected]
Or
register here.
Help Design our Market Calls
With our first two Monthly Market Calls under our belts, it's clear that many of you are very interested in hearing the latest news compiled from the California marketplace. Because we want these calls to be important tools in your work, we're asking for input and suggestions about what's most important to YOU.
Please
click here
to take our very brief survey, and make sure your voice is heard!
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LEAN Energy Activities in California
Best Practices Cheat Sheet
With so much interest and energy building in the state of California, we thought it was time to create a "CCA Best Practices" guideline to help some of our communities along. Created in concert with the operational CCAs in the state, this document will explain the models that are currently in use, how each of them works, best practices that have been observed, and a few areas of concern to consider. Because, after all--none of us knows what we don't know yet.
If you're in the early planning stages, this
Best Practices document can help you understand the most critical questions to ask, and how to fashion a program that's best suited to
your community.
CA CCA Assessment Report
Authored by LEAN for the Silicon Valley Community Choice Energy Partnership, this report:
- explains the experiences of Marin and Sonoma County CCAs
- discusses emerging programs in the state
- toplines innovative efforts in program development, energy efficiency and renewables
- explains risks of starting a CCE program
- explains potential environmental impacts of CCE
- offers recommendations about moving ahead in Silicon Valley
Click here to read the full report.
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of the Latest News!
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