6. Energy Efficiency and Demand Response

The standardized planning assumptions and SCE's proposed alternative assumptions on energy efficiency and demand response issues received significant attention from a number of parties. We note that any procurement assumptions or targets approved in this proceeding do not alter the energy efficiency and demand response requirements that this Commission has imposed on the utilities in other proceedings. This decision does not alter any prior Commission decision on those issues, nor does it alter the policies or goals for those programs.

In this proceeding we are taking those programs into consideration in the context of procurement. Our priority here is ensuring that there is adequate overall procurement within the requirements of § 454.5. For example, if the Commission, in an energy efficiency proceeding, ordered the utilities to obtain 1000 units of energy efficiency, that order is still in effect, and the utilities still need to comply with that order. But if for some reason the utilities only obtained 900 units of energy efficiency, the utilities do not need to pretend that they actually got 1000 and refrain from procurement to make up the shortfall. For procurement purposes, the utilities need to make up the shortfall. The utilities may have to explain to the Commission elsewhere why they failed to comply with the energy efficiency requirement, but if the procurement needed to make up the shortfall is within the parameters specified in this decision, for procurement purposes the utilities do not need to seek Commission approval for the variation.