2. Background
On July 11, 2008, San Diego Gas & Electric Company (SDG&E) filed this application seeking approval of a proposed Solar Energy Project.
Utility Consumers Action Network (UCAN), Western Power Trading Forum (WPTF), CAlifornians For Renewable Energy (CARE), Division of Ratepayer Advocates (DRA), The Greenlining Institute (Greenlining), Recurrent Energy (Recurrent), The Independent Energy Producers (IEP), and the Solar Alliance, the Vote Solar Initiative (Vote Solar), and the California Solar Energy Industries Association (CALSEIA) (collectively Joint Solar Parties) filed protests and responses to SDG&E's application. The Commission held a prehearing conference (PHC) on October 7, 2008. Following the PHC, the assigned Commissioner and Administrative Law Judge (ALJ) issued a Scoping Memo and Ruling (Scoping Memo) on November 11, 2008, which established the scope of issues and the schedule for the proceeding.
Parties served testimony and rebuttal testimony pursuant to the Scoping Memo schedule. On the first day of the hearing scheduled for February 18, 2009, SDG&E requested suspension of the hearings so that it could meet and confer with parties on a joint proposal.
On March 20, 2009, SDG&E, UCAN, WPTF, and CARE (collectively Joint Parties) filed a joint motion seeking approval of a settlement agreement (SA), which they believe resolves the issues set for resolution in this proceeding and requested continued suspension of the procedural schedule.
DRA, IEP, Greenlining, the Solar Alliance and Vote Solar filed timely comments to the motion. DRA and Greenlining oppose the SA and recommend rejecting it. IEP also objects to the SA but would support the SA if it were modified. The Solar Alliance and Vote Solar support the SA. The Joint Parties filed a reply on May 5, 2009.
The Commission held a workshop and a second PHC on July 13, 2009 to discuss the SA and the schedule for the proceeding. Parties were given an opportunity to file post-workshop comments identifying the material disputed facts. Following the second PHC, the assigned Commissioner and ALJ issued an amended Scoping Memo on August 3, 2009, which revised the scope of issues and the schedule for the proceeding.
Evidentiary hearings were held on October 7 through 9, 2009, on the testimony served concerning SDG&E's application and also on the SA. DRA, IEP, SDG&E, and Joint Parties filed timely opening briefs. DRA, IEP, and Joint Parties filed timely reply briefs.
On October 11, 2009, the Governor signed Senate Bill (SB) 32 (Stats. 2009, ch. 328) and Assembly Bill (AB) 920 (Stats. 2009, ch. 376) into law to take effect January 2010. SB 32 increases the size of generation facilities eligible for California's feed-in tariff program from 1.5 megawatts (MW) to 3 MW, and raises the program's statewide cap from 500 MW to 750 MW. SB 32 also establishes that the price under this program shall be based on the market price referent adjusted to include all current and anticipated environmental compliance costs subject to a ratepayer indifference test. AB 920 allows net energy metering customers with projects of up to 1 MW to sell any excess electricity they produce over the course of a year to their electric utility at a rate to be determined by the Commission.
Below, we briefly describe the proposed Solar Energy Project and the SA before we address the merits of the two proposals and the adopted Solar Energy Project.
