Big utilities’ BFF wants to put public power in the deep freeze
By Andrew Christie, Chapter Director
On December 12, the SLO City Council directed staff to move with all dispatch toward Community Choice Aggregation (CCA) and the creation of a Community Choice Energy program for the city, which would serve as model for all other cities in the county.
CCA, as we never get tired of saying, is the program on the cutting edge of clean energy advocacy, one that could, in our case, replace the power of the Diablo Canyon Nuclear Power Plant, provide jobs, cut costs paid by ratepayers, and – in the words of Paul Fenn, the author of the bill that brought Community Choice to California in 2002 and who made a speech in SLO four years later -- would “probably be the best thing to happen to the environment in this community in 100 years.”
Four days before the SLO City Council took its big step into the future, the California Public Utilities Commission took action to drag it, and the rest of the state, back into the past.
On December 8, the CPUC abruptly proposed to expand its oversight over Community Choice Energy programs and impose a one-year delay on new Community Choice programs or expansions where implementation plans have not yet been filed, and a two-year delay for programs that have not filed implementation plans by Dec. 31. It also proposed to impose new requirements regarding the start date of Community Choice programs which impact economics and local timelines.
As noted by Clean Power Exchange, an information hub for communities considering a Community Choice Energy program or already serving customers: “The Commission is attempting to slow down CCA growth in California and enact a de facto ‘CCA Freeze.’ The Commission process requires CCAs to begin service on a Commission-defined timeline, not the timeline that is decided to be the best for the community by locally elected leaders.
“By delaying service dates, the Commission is preventing CCAs from collecting revenue that could be used for these efforts. This could drive new CCAs into significant debt. [Investor owned utilities] will continue to procure power on a new CCA’s behalf until service is launched to customers, increasing the exit fees for those customers when they do begin CCA service.”
CCA advocates have observed that the move by the PUC to hobble the biggest competitor of investor owned utilities lives up to the Commission’s reputation as the utilities’ very close friend.
The CPUC claims the resolution is necessary as a mechanism to address “resource adequacy,” a requirement that utilities and CCAs demonstrate that they have procured energy to serve at least 115% of their peak loads.
Samuel Golding, President of Community Choice Partners, did not mince words about that rationale or the sudden move by the Commission and its president, Michael Picker: “The CPUC's true intent here is actually to freeze CCAs. If Picker's actions over the last year weren't proof enough, it's been made blatantly obvious in this draft resolution. If the CPUC was taking an unbiased look at all options on the table, Energy Division would have included the other mechanisms in the draft resolution. These are, to be blunt, obvious solutions to anybody familiar with how the power sector actually operates. A freeze should be a last and worst case option. The silence is deafening, and betrays the fact that the CPUC is strategically constraining this debate to justify the freeze.”
And the debate couldn’t be more constrained. The comment period is timed to begin and end over the holidays, with no formal proceeding and no hearings. The deadline for submission of written comments is Dec. 22, so now is the time to let commissioners hear from you, along with a big VOTE NO on the proposed Draft Resolution E-4907.
The CPUC is scheduled to take oral public comment on Draft Resolution E-4907 at their meeting in San Francisco on Jan. 11 from 9:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. If you can come, show up early (8:30 a.m.) for a media event and rally on the steps of the CPUC building at 505 Van Ness. But between now and then, a rising storm of anger from CCA advocates may well compel the Commission to remove this item from the agenda and seek a different path, so check the current agenda before you go.