General Observations from SGDP workshops

Clean Coalition member Becky Davis attended the 4-day CPUC Smart Grid Deployment Plan Workshops in downtown San Francisco on January 30 through February 2.  Here is her quick take on the events:

The California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) Smart Grid Deployment Plan Workshops consisted of four days of presentations and discussions about how the investor owned utilities (IOUs) will transform California’s grid.  The workshop was divided into three parts:  Smart Customer, Smart Market, and Smart Utility.  While the Smart Grid Deployment Plans were discussed, the workshops did not focus on specific details.  Instead, they gave stakeholders and opportunity to provide general feedback to the IOUs and the CPUC staff on what the plans did well, and what was missing.

The first two days of the workshop, discussing the Smart Customer and Smart Market, were heavily focused on smart meters and customer-side programs and technologies like Home Area Networks and Demand Response. 

It was surprising to find that the Clean Coalition was the only stakeholder at the meeting demonstrating the importance of Wholesale Distributed Generation (WDG), and the need to adopt smart grid solutions that support distributed generation (DG).  From the Clean Coalition standpoint, the entire distributed generation market segment was missing from the “smart market” conversation. 

It will be critical for the IOUs and the CPUC to make smart grid investments in monitoring, communications, and control equipment on the grid (MC2 for short), which will allow for the balancing of local generation and loads.  Additionally, MC2 will lay the ground work for the next generation of interconnection reform, Interconnection 3.0, which would provide nearly instantaneous results to interconnection studies. 

The CPUC Staff and Administrative Law Judge (ALJ) were very interested in the Clean Coalition’s feedback, and agreed that the plans need better consideration of the impact of DG.  While it is likely that the commission will require the IOUs to revise the plans that were submitted, input from the workshops will affect Staff’s report on the plans (expected in March 2012), as well as the annual updates the IOUs are required to submit, the first of which will be due in October 2012. 

Craig Lewis to Appear on Traders Network

On Tuesday, January 3 at 1:45 p.m. CST, Executive Director Craig Lewis will be a featured guest on The Traders Network - a station that helps investors stay ahead of the curve by featuring leading market and business professionals, sophisticated technology, and the analytics needed to identify the most lucrative investment strategies.

Listen live or stream the recorded show at www.yorbamedia.com.

CLEAN Campus Program Released

The Clean Coalition is excited to introduce the CLEAN Campus Program, aimed specifically at streamlining renewable energy procurement procedures for communities which do not have control over wholesale electricity purchases or their local electricity grids.  CLEAN Campus Programs are based on CLEAN Programs, which have proven to be the most effective type of renewable energy procurement policy in the world.

CLEAN Campus Programs can be employed by cities, counties, school districts, and other organizations which control their properties and purchase energy from an investor owned utility (IOU).  Companies interested in increasing on-site use of renewable energy and reaping the associated benefits can also adopt CLEAN Campus Programs.  Key features of CLEAN Campus Programs include pre-identified project sites, streamlined transactions, and on-site electricity consumption.  In contrast to the request for proposal approach to clean energy transactions, the CLEAN Campus approach results in far lower transaction costs and burdens for all parties, which translates into lower electric rates.

Please visit www.clean-coalition.org/local-action to download a free copy of the Local CLEAN Program Guide, and to find out more information about CLEAN Programs and CLEAN Campus Programs.  For additional information, please contact LocalGuide@clean-coalition.org.

Local CLEAN Program Guide "Determining Program Size & Cost Impact" Module

The Clean Coalition is proud to announce the release of the "Determining Program Size & Cost Impact" module of the Local CLEAN Program Guide.  The Guide is a detailed tool for communities and utilities across the nation to evaluate, design, and enact Clean Local Energy Accessible Now (CLEAN) Programs.  The Guide draws from tremendously successful CLEAN Programs in the United States, such as the Gainesville, FL program and the soon-to-be operational CLEAN Programs that the Clean Coalition helped design in Fort Collins, Colorado and Palo Alto, California.

The Determining Program Size & Cost Impact module assists utilities with setting the appropriate CLEAN Program size and assessing the associated cost impact. This module shows how the optimal program size can be determined in light of the avoided cost analysis and the program goals and constraints.  This module also demonstrates how to calculate the cost impact of the program, and explains why a CLEAN Program may have no cost impact. 

Please visit www.clean-coalition.org/local-action/ to download a free copy of the Local CLEAN Program Guide.  If you would like to become a local advocate for deploying a CLEAN Program in your community, please email LocalGuide@Clean-Coalition.org.  Sign-up here on our mailing list to receive the Clean Coalition monthly newsletter and to be notified when the additional modules are ready for release.

Local CLEAN Program Guide "Evaluating Avoided Costs" Module

The Clean Coalition just released a new module of its Local CLEAN Program Guide, a comprehensive how-to guide for communities and utilities across the nation to evaluate, design, and enact Clean Local Energy Accessible Now (CLEAN) Programs based on global best practices for increasing the amount of cost-effective renewables and allowing a community to benefit from the associated economic benefits.

The Evaluating Avoided Costs module provides approaches for assessing the avoided costs of CLEAN energy and will help local utilities design cost-effective CLEAN Programs that take advantage of the avoided costs and the superior value of CLEAN local energy.  The avoided cost evaluation is an important consideration when designing a CLEAN Program because it shows that the “sticker price” expressed by power purchase agreements does not include the many hidden costs that the utility pays for avoided generation or the “external” costs of energy generation that have a substantial impact on the community, but incur no cost to the utility. 

Please visit www.clean-coalition.org/local-action/ to download a free copy of the Local CLEAN Program Guide.  If you would like to become a local advocate for deploying a CLEAN Program in your community, please email LocalGuide@Clean-Coalition.org.  Sign-up here on our mailing list to receive the Clean Coalition monthly newsletter and to be notified when the additional modules are ready for release.