The California Efficiency + Demand Management Council (the Council) works hard to keep energy efficiency and demand management forefront in decisions at the legislature and energy agencies, such as the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC). Our advocacy relies on an active Board and involved members to help guide our positions. Become a Member of the Council to have your voice heard in critical energy policy arenas.
CPUC Policy
Recent achievements at the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) include:
- Remained active in the Energy Efficiency and Business Plan Proceedings. The Council worked closely with members, Commission staff and other stakeholders to bring common sense and the industry viewpoint to the Rolling Portfolio and Business Plan proceedings. Our hard work in 2017 should deliver results in 2018, since significant decisions are expected soon.
- Expanded our sphere of influence by participating in a variety of proceedings (Integrated Distributed Energy Resources, Distributed Resources Plan, Integrated Resource Planning, Low Income ISA/CARE, Resource Adequacy and Demand Response) to ensure that EE and DR remain priority resources.
- Leveraged our relationships with the Joint DR Parties and Mission:Data and obtained a streamlined demand response customer enrollment process that will simplify direct participation. Initial efforts are also underway to expand this process to distributed energy resources, including energy efficiency.
- Engaged a consultant and prepared a White Paper to rebut the CPUC’s (mis)understanding of how EE implementers are paid.
- Strengthened the role of custom projects as a critical component to achieve EE goals by achieving some improvements to the custom review process and applications of Industry Standard Practice.
- Successfully advocated for adoption of an Interim Greenhouse Gas Adder within the Integrated Distributed Energy Resources proceeding to update values for resources like EE and DR.
- Proposed an incrementality method that would result in clear solicitation parameters for eligible resources and projects. PG&E included the Council’s proposed method in their Distribution Resource Planning Pilot proposals.
- Successfully protested the Track 1 Working Group Resolution on measure-level baseline assignments and preponderance of evidence requirements and obtained a Commission hold that allowed the Energy Division to make positive changes to the Resolution before it was adopted.
- Achieved our goal to open PG&E’s Demand Response Capacity Bidding Program to residential aggregators, which provides new opportunities for third party providers. The CPUC also ordered SCE and SDG&E to make similar program changes in the December 2017 DR decision.
- Successfully protested the adoption of program changes that would have prematurely presumed a 20-minute notification requirement to qualify as local resource adequacy. The CPUC agreed with our position in its final DR decision of 2017.
- Successfully advocated for the residential smart communicating thermostat workpaper to ensure that any adjustments be applied only on a prospective basis.
California Energy Commission (CEC)
- Facilitated an offsite meeting with Commissioner McAllister and his staff to provide our industry’s thoughts on how to achieve EE doubling by 2030, including advocacy for CVR to be one of the tools.
- Urged the CEC to be more aggressive in developing an action plan to ensure a doubling of efficiency savings happens.
- Strongly supported the California Energy Commission’s final proposed benchmarking regulations.
CAISO
- Actively participated in initiatives at the California Independent System Operator to: 1) reduce barriers for demand response and distributed energy resources; 2) increase opportunities for direct participation in CAISO markets; and 3) preserve opportunities for distributed energy resources and ensure comparability for demand response as CAISO addresses governance and jurisdictional concerns related to its regional energy market proposal.
Legislative and Governor’s Office Activity
- Worked with Senator Hertzberg’s office to run legislation to address the exclusion of industrial and agricultural sectors from AB 802 and the shortcomings of the CPUC Track 1 Working Group Resolution.
- Participated in discussions with Legislature and Governor’s office on Regional Energy Market initiative to ensure that demand response and energy efficiency remain viable resources in the CAISO market in the event that CAISO is successful in expanding its jurisdiction to western states.
Partnering with Utilities
- Hosted two trainings in partnership with the IOUs to support bidders in the upcoming energy efficiency Business Plan solicitations anticipated to begin in 2018.
- Delivered two IOU business forums, one with SCE and one with Sempra.
Member Services and Events
- We continue to help you stay informed about all the changes in the industry with our newsletters, news alerts, and member-only calls. We held our Spring Symposium and Fall Conference as well as two trainings on efficiency and demand response and our quarterly Happy Hours. This year we also added a thought leadership session on Emerging Opportunities for Energy Efficiency and trainings in conjunction with the IOUs to prepare for EE bidding. We hope to see you at all our conferences and events in 2018!
