5. Assignment of Proceeding
John A. Bohn is the assigned Commissioner and Thomas R. Pulsifer is the assigned Administrative Law Judge in this proceeding.
1. In September of 2007, by D.07-09-043, the Commission adopted the RRIM to encourage achievement of Commission-adopted energy efficiency goals, and to extend California's commitment to making energy efficiency the highest energy resource priority.
2. The RRIM was designed to rely upon independent verification of energy savings through production of Energy Division verification reports of utility energy efficiency costs and installations and services completed.
3. In D.09-12-045, the Commission examined RRIM earnings claims covering the 2006-2008 program cycle, and adopted a process for the true-up of those earnings claims, with a Commission decision to be issued by year-end 2010.
4. In its Second Interim Verification Report on Energy Efficiency Savings, the Energy Division did not update the utility-reported incremental measure costs, defaulting instead to utility-reported values
5. A requirement was added in finalizing D.09-12-045 for independent verification of utility self-reported IMC in the true-up of 2006-2008 RRIM earnings, but the adopted schedule did not incorporate additional time for this expanded workload scope.
6. If the requirement for verification of utility IMC data is retained, the existing true-up schedule would need to be extended to accommodate additional time to complete the expanded workload scope.
7. Parties provided comments on the implications of the requirement for independent IMC verification, and possible ways that the scope of IMC work might be modified while upholding the Commission's commitment to render a decision on the true-up by year-end 2010.
8. Revising the 2006-2008 IMCs for deemed measures used in the DEER would not be simple or straightforward. Such a process would entail taking the IMCs from the 2008 DEER updates used for planning the 2010-2012 portfolios and matching them up with the measures in the 2006-2008 portfolios.
9. Extending the schedule by one additional month would not provide enough time for the Energy Division to convene stakeholder meetings, and thus the outcome of such an IMC update would not benefit from transparency and collaboration that this Commission has demanded of the Energy Division, the utilities, and the energy efficiency proceedings.
10. A modification to D.09-12-045 to remove the IMC verification requirement would allow the existing schedule to be preserved, with provision for a final Commission decision on the 2006-2008 earnings true up by year-end 2010.
11. In D.08-01-042, the Commission concluded that to be effective in motivating the utilities to treat investments in energy efficiency as being comparable to supply side investments, the RRIM must provide the opportunity for the utility to recognize and book incentives on a regular basis.
12. The goal of providing timely and regular RRIM earnings is upheld by the Commission's commitment to issue a decision on the 2006-2008 earning true-up by year-end 2010.
13. A modification to D.09-12-045 to remove the IMC verification requirement would still preserve existing requirements whereby roughly 90% of the utilities' 2006-2008 energy savings claims have undergone some form of evaluation review.
1. In order to maintain the Commission's commitment to issue a final decision by year-end 2010 on the incentive earnings resulting from the 2006-2008 true-up, an amendment to D.09-12-045 is warranted to modify the scope of IMC verification.
2. The modification of D.09-12-045 as set forth in the ordering paragraph below should be adopted.
3. The Commission's adoption of findings and conclusions consistent with the Assigned Commissioner's Ruling is in accordance with Public Utilities Code Section 310 which states that every finding, opinion and order made by the Commission pursuant to an investigation, inquiry, or hearing, when approved or confirmed by the Commission and ordered filed in its office, is the finding, opinion, and order of the Commission.
4. The modification to D.09-12-045, as ordered below, is in accordance with Public Utilities Code Section 1708, which provides that the Commission may at any time, upon notice to the parties, and with opportunity to be heard as provided in the case of complaints, rescind, alter, or amend any order or decision made by it. Any order rescinding, altering or amending a prior order or decision shall, when served upon the parties, have the same effect as an original order or decision.
5. This amendment to D.09-12-045 to modify the scope of the 2006-2008 true-up, as set forth in the ordering paragraph below, is not a precedent as to the scope of IMC verification to be applied for the 2010-2012 program cycle.
IT IS ORDERED that:
1. Decision 09-12-045 is hereby modified as follows: Ordering Paragraph 6 of Decision 09-12-045, which states that Energy Division shall complete an independent verification of the utilities' self-reported incremental measure costs in conjunction with the scheduled final 2010 true-up of Risk/Reward Incentive Mechanism earnings for the 2006-2008 cycle, is deleted.
2. Rulemaking 09-01-019 remains open.
This order is effective today.
Dated April 8, 2010, at San Francisco, California
MICHAEL R. PEEVEY
President
DIAN M. GRUENEICH
JOHN A. BOHN
TIMOTHY ALAN SIMON
NANCY E. RYAN
Commissioners
