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California’s Clean Energy Regulatory Round-Up: What You Need to Know

 

California’s Clean Energy Regulatory Round-Up: What You Need to Know

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The world of legislation, regulation, and proceedings related to clean energy can be complicated and difficult to follow. From rolling portfolios to business plans, resolutions to advice letters, there’s a lot to keep track of! Here are the five most important regulatory updates affecting SoCalREN and the clean energy landscape in California today:

  1. The California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) is currently evaluating the next eight years of energy efficiency funding proposals. These proposals come from community choice aggregators, investor-owned utilities, and regional energy networks (like SoCalREN!) and outline their high level strategies to address state policies, including climate and energy laws and environmental and social justice. 

  2. A recent CPUC staff proposal is exploring how to ramp down fossil gas energy efficiency incentives while ensuring equity and pathways to meet 2045 decarbonization goals for all fossil gas consumption. The staff proposal suggests “an orderly transition to phasing out ratepayer-funded energy efficiency (EE) incentives for most natural gas measures over the next 10 years.”

  3. The CPUC launched a new proceeding to enable widespread demand flexibility through electric rates. The proceeding examines scaling up demand flexibility and reforming the way customers are compensated for their distributed energy resources.

  4. Governor Newsom urged the California Air Resources Board (CARB) to accelerate progress towards the state’s climate goals, including new efforts to advance offshore wind, clean fuels, climate-friendly homes, carbon removal, and addressing methane leaks.

  5. The Inflation Reduction Act includes $369B for climate related activities including customer home rebates, ten years of consumer tax credits for battery storage, EV incentives, and various grant programs with an emphasis on environmental justice. 

Interested in learning more about regulatory proceedings in California? Check out the Local Government Sustainable Energy Coalition (LGSEC), a statewide network representing local government interests related to clean energy and climate resilience.
 

Making a Difference

In 2019, the SoCalREN Workforce Education and Training Program enrolled 67 ACES in the Program, established 20 new partnerships leading to 29 paid internships to participants, and conducted over 300 hours of training. 

By registering on socalren.org/agencies/register, public agencies can now gain access to an extensive library of information, tools, templates, and case studies while being introduced to exciting new program opportunities. 

SoCalREN also offers financial services for public agencies to obtain the necessary incentives or financing to make projects a reality. Reducing energy use reduces costs for public agencies, freeing up scarce public resources for services like public safety, firefighting, and educational resources. 

SoCalREN works collaboratively with engineering firms, contractors, Local Government Partnerships, Southern California Edison, and SoCalGas to ensure streamlined, “one-stop” services to customers. 

13,740 tenant units improved, $7,161,042 improvement incentives paid to multifamily properties, and 180 construction jobs created all in the 2019 calendar year. 

In 2019, 53 percent of the projects completed were performed in disadvantaged communities. These projects achieved 3,597,973 kWh gross (3,058,277 GWh net) and 194,514 therms gross (165,337 therms net).  

The SoCalREN Multifamily Program helps customers identify and prioritize project opportunities to achieve a percentage savings above baseline usage, regardless of utility. This allows property owners to make informed facility improvement decisions that best meet their property’s needs. 

The mission of SoCalREN is to harness the collective action of public agencies to save energy and lead their communities on the pathway to a safe, secure, resilient, affordable and sustainable energy future.

In 2019 SoCalREN achieved 17,692,420 kWh (39% DAC), 707 kW (47% DAC) and 15,203 (100% DAC) of energy savings, while supporting 260 construction jobs and paying out a total of $6.5 million in incentives. 

In 2019, SoCalREN’s energy efficiency programs collectively achieved 6,920,487 kWh and 492,655 therms of energy savings. 

SoCalREN works across 12 counties with one common goal: achieving unprecedented levels of energy savings throughout Southern California by delivering programs and information to the communities, businesses, and 20 million people who call the area home.

SoCalREN Workforce Education and Training Program serves as a response to high demand for skilled labor in the energy sector through targeted youth workforce education and training, small business training regarding current energy efficiency programs, and local public agency opportunities. 

SoCalREN’s Workforce Education and Training Program continually pursues new ways to provide greater employment opportunity to under-represented individuals performing energy efficiency project work. 

The Metered Savings Program, Pathway to Zero, and the Revolving Savings Fund aim to overcome significant market barriers and harness the collective actions of Southern California public agencies to save energy. These programs work together seamlessly as companion programs and have expanded services available to agencies to drive deeper energy efficiency savings and create more sustainable communities. 

In Q4 2019, the Residential Community Coordinator (RCC) Program interacted with nearly 748 customers through participation in 13 community events and seminars. These outreach events targeted Hispanic and Chinese audiences and successfully increased program awareness in these communities. SoCalREN’s RCC Program will continue to provide in-language support to hard-to-reach customers and provide opportunities for these customers to save money and add value to their multifamily properties. 

The Architecture, Construction, and Engineering Students Pathway Program provides education and career pathways for disadvantaged youth. The Program improves educational achievement and removes barriers to higher education by co-enrolling high school students in community college courses in science, technology, engineering, art, and math fields. 

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Professionalism of consultants and SoCalREN Public Agency Program staff has been high. The program is more hands on and personal than other programs we have used before.
— Alice Rod, Management Analyst, Administrative Services, City of Moreno Valley

SoCalREN has done a wonderful job and we both have learned a lot since we began working together. We are happy to be part of a collaborative partnership to save energy and the environment through the SoCalREN Public Agency Program.
— Dave Marshall, Facilities Services Director, Ventura Unified School District

With the SoCalREN Public Agency Program, we are able to do things that would not have been done otherwise. Technical expertise has been a huge help. It has been great working with everyone in the SoCalREN Public Agency Program!
— Benjamin Lucha, Sr. Administrative Analyst, City of Palmdale

I can truly say we would have not gotten this far this fast in such a cost-effective manner without SoCalREN’s guidance and technical assistance every step of the way. In short, the SoCalREN Public Agency Program is a fantastic program to assist local governments in energy efficiency that will pay dividends for years to come.
— Charles Herbertson, Public Works Director/City Engineer for Culver City

Their level of expertise and professionalism has been unsurpassed. They have suggested things that we never thought of, and weren’t even on our radar. They have done significant amounts of work on our behalf that has resulted in substantial savings of both energy and money.
— Rick Freed, Energy Educator/Manager for Conejo Valley Unified School District

It’s a great project for Whittier. It’s green and it helps us save energy. We’re getting a lot of bang for our buck. It’s win-win-win all the way around.
— Joe Vinatieri, Mayor, City of Whittier

The SoCalREN Public Agency Program provided engineering services, project management, and the resources needed to streamline the Cucamonga Valley Water District’s energy efficiency projects from start to finish.
— Mike Maestas, Water Production Manager, CVWD