Fall 2009
CPUC 2010-12 Energy Efficiency PGC Programs
On September 24th, the California Public Utilities Commission voted 5-0 to approve the energy efficiency programs that California's investor-owned utilities will administer for 2010-2012. The utilities� budgets for the next three years will be $3.129 billion, plus another $143 million that remains unspent from previous years.
These programs will create energy savings of almost 7,000 gigawatt hours, 1,500 megawatts, and 150 million metric therms of natural gas; this is the equivalent of three 500-megawatt power plants and will avoid 3 million tons of greenhouse gas emissions. The funding from this decision can create between 15,000 and 18,000 skilled green jobs.
The decision approved the Local Government Partnership programs as they were proposed, and clarified that the 10% administrative cap for utilities did not apply to the partnerships. It provided over $260 million in funding for 64 cities, counties, and regional agencies for local efforts targeting public sector building retrofits and leading edge energy efficiency opportunities. It called for the utilities to:
- benchmark all government buildings and facilities impacted by a utility program in a substantial way;
- work cooperatively with local government partners to provide usage information on local government facilities and building sectors and to facilitate the transfer of usage data for private buildings;
- provide one, statewide list of Strategic Plan strategies that local governments can choose among, and measure and track partners' progress on strategy milestones;
- submit criteria for assessing reasonable scopes of work and funding end points for all three categories of local government partnership work;
- fund a non-utility position for a statewide local government energy efficiency best practices coordinator, and work with this coordinator to convene an annual local government best practices forum;
- provide integrated audits to government partners where building size makes it cost effective; and
- study opportunities for a statewide local government streetlight retrofit program and request funding augmentation for such a program in 2010, if warranted.
Commissioner Dian M. Grueneich stated, "This decision implements the goals of the California Long-Term Energy Efficiency Strategic Plan to make energy efficiency a way of life in California and demonstrates California's continued leadership role in the field of energy efficiency."
The September decision will hopefully allow for contracts to be signed in time for the programs to start in January 2010. To download the decision, go to: http://docs.cpuc.ca.gov/PUBLISHED/AGENDA_DECISION/107378.htm.
