California Climate & Energy Collaborative

Snapshot of Energy Efficiency Performance Incentives for Electric Utilities

Sarina Soor
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Performance incentive mechanisms (PIMs) are one of the various policies that incentive enery efficiency. ACEEE’s research finds that PIMs are among the most important factors contributing to higher savings and increasing utility energy savings year to year. They can be structured to provide business opportunities that are competitive with what utilities can earn through investments…

California Utilities ordered to reopen grid maps

Sarina Soor
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“There’s an unfolding conflict between the state’s investor-owned utilities and distributed energy resources providers in California that highlights the complexities of sharing utility data with the broader world. Last month, we introduced our GTM Squared readers to the strange case of California’s disappearing Integrated Capacity Analysis maps. In simple terms, the conflict can be summed…

How Community Choice Aggregation fits into California’s clean energy future

Sarina Soor
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“This month, California enacted one of the most ambitious clean energy goals in the country: getting 100 percent of its electricity from carbon-free sources by 2045. California’s community-choice aggregation (CCA) providers say they’re ready to hit that milestone — and on an accelerated schedule.” Click here to read more from Green Tech Media.

PG&E spends more than $1 million to lobby California officials on wildfire laws

Sarina Soor
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“The San Francisco company dished out more money from April through June than it spent to influence state leaders in all of 2017, according to state filings. Southern California Edison also reported spending $900,000 and Sempra Energy disclosed $502,000 in lobbying payments during the quarter. The lobbying surges took place as the utility companies urged…

2018 National Convening on Utilities and Electric Vehicles – Nov 18

Sarina Soor
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Join us this fall for an action-oriented event on electric vehicles, grid integration strategies, and changing utility business models. This one-day, dynamic event will focus on helping utilities develop EV policies and practices. Learn how to broaden support from stakeholders and maximize economic, environmental, and other benefits for consumers. Hear from speakers and work in…

As the power sector transforms, can utilities and customers find common ground on ratemaking?

Sarina Soor
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“The contention between customer advocates and utilities takes place within the confines of electric utility commission proceedings in rate cases. Those rate cases often go unobserved by the broad public. But all the headline debates and regulatory fireworks over whether to support coal and nuclear or natural gas and renewable energy largely come down to…

Energy use disaggregation is coming. Here are 3 ways utilities can make the most of it

Sarina Soor
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“By harnessing the data from nearly ubiquitous smart meters in California and partnering with data science companies, these utilities will actually be able to disaggregate their customers’ electricity consumption down to the level of individual appliances. Doing so could enable utilities to help their customers understand previously inscrutable electric bills and to suggest concrete ways…

California Utilities, Climate Change and Wildfires: A Liability Quagmire

Sarina Soor
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“California’s rampant wildfires have ignited legal questions as the state begins to deal with the question of who’s at fault and who pays for the escalating damages. Caught squarely in the middle is the state’s electric companies, several of whom have been found liable for huge settlements when their equipment or negligence in maintaining it…

Are recent disasters enough to spur utilities to take climate change seriously?

Sarina Soor
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“Even now, utilities for the most part are skittish about mentioning climate change. While some companies are addressing the challenge, for a sizable number, discussing it is mostly lip service to inevitable carbon regulation looming on the horizon. In fact, liberal watchdog group Energy and Policy Institute unearthed evidence that some major utilities knew about the potential impacts from extreme weather…