Senator Stern Applauds Commission’s Clean Energy Response to Vulnerable Communities
December 17, 2019 - SACRAMENTO – After months of Southern California Edison public safety power shutoffs (PSPS) that left over 180,000 customers in the dark, Senator Henry Stern (D-Calabasas) and 
his colleagues called for an urgent response to the crisis. The California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) has answered with $1.2 billion in funding to help customers keep their power on.
The CPUC’s proposal to provide $1.2 billion in incentives for customers to self-generate with clean energy systems, insulating medically and economically vulnerable customers from future power shutoffs, follows a Stern-led town hall meeting in Chatsworth Lake Manor, along with a November oversight hearing where Stern and fellow lawmakers pushed utilities and the Newsom administration for creative solutions.
“Power shutoffs in wildfire conditions may reduce the risk of one kind of disaster but they’ve caused another,” said Senator Stern. “With over $100 million in costs and untold stress on the most vulnerable among us, it’s time to rethink the electricity grid and invest in neighborhood-scale resilience. The CPUC’s proposal is a critical step in that direction, and I hope the Commission follows through to urgently respond to this new aspect of the climate emergency.”
The CPUC’s Self-Generation Incentive Program (SGIP) provides rebates for business and residential customers for clean distributed energy systems, like wind turbines, waste heat to power technologies, fuel cells, and solar-powered battery storage systems. Rebates can offset as much as 98% of a total system’s cost, but incentives previously have not been targeted at PSPS vulnerable areas or smaller-scale projects. Under the new proposal, the CPUC would make SGIP funds available for smaller residential customers that need 10kw or less of storage. A 10kw storage system is enough to provide power for 10 to 12 hours, which can be critically important to those who are medically and economically vulnerable.
The CPUC’s proposal, which could be rolled out as early as January:
- Fully funds the SGIP at the maximum level of $166 million per year for 2020-2024, for a total of $830 million in new funding.
- Allocates a total of $1.2 billion in incentives when added to existing unspent funds from prior years.
- Shifts SGIP’s focus towards providing resiliency for customers with medical needs and impacted communities during PSPS events.
- Expands eligible customers to include those whose electricity was shut off during two or more discrete PSPS events.
- Allocates $613 million for equity/resiliency projects, $315 million for large-scale storage projects and $129 million for renewable generation projects.
The proposed decision strengthens community-based resiliency by expanding the universe of customers who are eligible for the “Equity/Resiliency” incentives, increasing funding for equity projects, authorizing $60 million for residential projects and advancing the previously approved start date for Equity/Resiliency residential incentive to March 1, 2020.
Source: Senator Henry Stern
