PUBLIC UTILITIES COMMISSION OF THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA

ITEM # 5 I.D. # 10530

ENERGY DIVISION RESOLUTION E-4396

September 8, 2011

RESOLUTION

Resolution E-4396. Southern California Edison (SCE) Advice Letter (AL) 2533-E, and Pacific Gas and Electric (PG&E) Advice Letter 3768-E, and California Center for Sustainable Energy (CCSE) Advice Letter- 13 , collectively the California Solar Initiative (CSI) Program Administrators.

PROPOSED OUTCOME: This Resolution denies the CSI Program Administrators' (PA) request for a 1-Step application review process and the associated process-related amendments that change the application review period and application fee submission period to 14 calendar days as originally proposed in the PAs' Advice Letters submitted in December 2010. The current 2-Step Process guidelines for processing applications will not change. The PAs will develop cost-effective strategies to reduce application paperwork and administration costs. The Commission approves all other proposed CSI Program Handbook¹ amendments proposed in the above Advice Letters.

ESTIMATED COST: $0

By SCE Advice Letter (AL) 2533-E, filed on December 3, 2010, Substitute Sheet filed on December 7, 2010.

By PG&E Advice Letter AL 3768-E, filed on December 3, 2010.

By CCSE Advice Letter AL 13, filed on December 3, 2010.

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SUMMARY

The CSI Program Administrators (PAs) submitted Advice Letters (ALs) in December 2010 requesting approval of a mandatory 1-Step application review process for small projects and other programmatic modifications to the CSI Program Handbook (Handbook). The ALs were protested by Solar Alliance on December 23. The PAs responded on January 10. Based on the protest and PA responses, Resolution E-4396, which modified the current 2-Step application

process, was issued on June 27. The PAs' responses to the Resolution indicated that the modified application review process proposed by the Commission in the Resolution would not attain the AL's objectives or reduce administration cost for the PAs. This Resolution denies the PAs' proposed 1-Step application review process for the CSI program and other proposed changes relating to a mandatory 1-Step Process. The proposed Handbook amendments to change the current 20 -day application review period to 14 close-days, and the requirement to submit an application fee 14 -close days from the project invoice date is directly related to the 1-Step application process and is therefore denied by this Resolution. The Resolution grants all other proposed changes to the Handbook. The CSI Handbook changes filed via the ALs encompassed a wide range of minor programmatic modifications.

¹ The CSI Handbook is available here: http://www.cpuc.ca.gov/PUC/energy/Solar/handbook.htm