3. Ratification of the Assigned Commissioner's Ruling

On February 10, 2011, the assigned Commissioner in this proceeding issued an Assigned Commissioner's Ruling (ACR) directing the PAs to suspend accepting new SGIP reservation requests.

We support the rationale for temporarily suspending issuing new SGIP applications and ratify the ACR that directed the PAs to suspend accepting new SGIP reservation requests. The SGIP has a limited funding, and the funding could have been depleted before the Commission implemented SB 412 and considered the proposed modifications that were under review. The modifications we adopt today could result in a greater variety of technologies, and a broader range of customers and projects participating in SGIP in the future. Moreover, some of the modifications we adopt today help ensure that ratepayers receive a greater benefit from the incentives provided to the SGIP recipients. Thus, suspending the processing of new applications preserved the SGIP's limited funds and ensured that the limited budget that currently provides incentives for a small number of renewable and non-renewable technologies remained available while the Commission considered determining eligibility for additional technologies to participate in the SGIP.