ALJ/TJS/avs Date of Issuance 4/19/2011
Decision 11-04-024 April 14, 2011
BEFORE THE PUBLIC UTILITIES COMMISSION OF THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA
Order Instituting Rulemaking to Consider Smart Grid Technologies Pursuant to Federal Legislation and on the Commission's own Motion to Actively Guide Policy in California's Development of a Smart Grid System. |
Rulemaking 08-12-009 (Filed December 18, 2008) |
DECISION GRANTING INTERVENOR COMPENSATION TO
THE CONSUMER FEDERATION OF CALIFORNIA FOR SUBSTANTIAL CONTRIBUTION TO DECISION 10-06-047
This decision awards Consumer Federation of California $12,668.87 for its substantial contributions to Decision 10-06-047. This represents a decrease of $24,798.63 or 66.19% from the amount requested due to unproductive effort, sub-standard compensation claim, undocumented costs, and excessive hours. Responsibility for today's award payment will be allocated to the affected utilities.
1. Background
This rulemaking is a result of Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger signing into law Senate Bill (SB) 17 (Padilla) which went into effect on January 1, 2010. SB 17 directs the Commission to "determine the requirements for a Smart Grid Deployment plan consistent with the policies set forth in the bill and federal law" by July 1, 2010. The older procedural history leading to this phase of this proceeding can be found in Decision (D.) 09-12-046 and the assigned Commissioner and Administrative Law Judge's (ALJ) Joint Ruling of September 28, 2009.
D.09-12-046 set policies to promote access to electricity usage and price information by consumers and authorized third parties that required implementation rules. D.09-12-046 ordered an additional phase of the proceeding in order to develop the rules necessary to implement these policies, consistent with the Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007 (H.R. 6, 110th Congress, or EISA), the public interest, and state privacy rules.
Pursuant to SB 17 and in consultation with the Energy Commission, Independent System Operator and other key stakeholders, the subsequent proceeding, D.10-06-047, set the forth the Commission's criteria for the use, the development and the review of Smart Grid Deployment Plans. These criteria were as follows:
1. How should the Commission use Smart Grid Deployment Plans? The Commission identified three different roles that a deployment plan could play: a) Creating a baseline against which the Commission could measure progress; b) Providing utilities with approved deployment plans that guide investment during review of the project and help in the determination of whether a specific project is reasonable and consistent with the Commission's overall Smart Grid vision; Provide the utility investing in an approved project with an elimination of after the fact reasonableness reviews.1
2. What elements must a Smart Grid Deployment Plan have? The decision required utilities to follow a common outline in preparing their Smart Grid Deployment Plans. That outline consists of eight topics: a) Smart Grid Vision Statement; b) Deployment Baseline; c) Smart Grid Strategy; d) Grid Security and Cyber Security Strategy; e) Smart Grid Roadmap; f) Cost Estimates; g) Benefits Estimates; and h) Metrics.2 In addition the decision set requirements for each of these sections concerning the topics that the Smart Grid Deployment Plans must address, the information that the deployment plans must provide and how the deployment plans must link each section and topic back to the policies set forth in SB 17 and the relevant federal law.
3. How should the Commission consider/approve deployment plans? The decision determined that a single proceeding involving the relevant Investor Owned Utilities (IOUs) would ensure the most efficient and through review of the initial Smart Grid Deployment Plans.3
4. How should the Commission review/consider specific smart grid investments? The decision determined that the IOUs should file an annual report that describes their current initiatives in regards to Smart Grid deployments and investments. Each annual report is to include: A summary of the utility's deployment of Smart Grid technologies during the past year and its progress toward meeting its Smart Grid Deployment Plan; the costs and benefits of Smart Grid deployment to ratepayers during the past year and current initiatives for Smart Grid deployments and investments.4
1 D.10-06-047 at 17.
2 D.10-06-047 at 29.
3 Id. at 88.
4 Id. at 100.
