7. Goals to Complement Metrics

As part of the Commission's review of metrics, the Commission will examine whether the specification of goals offers a better way of directing progress towards the Smart Grid than simply specifying metrics.

Consider, for example, our metric concerning plug-in electrical vehicles: "the number of customers enrolled in time-variant electric vehicle tariffs." This metric offers a good way of measuring how electrical vehicles are able to use the new Smart Grid. It does not, however, set a vision shared by the utilities and the regulator for what the Smart Grid should or could accomplish for California. A goal akin to California's renewable portfolio standard, in contrast, creates a target and a direction for all involved.

For the Smart Grid, the development of a series of goals may offer a good way of developing a vision of the Smart Grid. The Commission plans to investigate this issue as part of the Technical Working Group's efforts.

Since 2008, the Commission has issued a number of decisions to guide the utilities toward a smarter grid. Specifically, the Commission opened this Rulemaking to guide policy in California's development of a Smart Grid system. The Commission has since issued decisions to establish privacy rules, set requirements for utility deployment plans, and guide the utilities to enable third-party access. The utilities have been equally active in responding to our proceedings, including filing their 10-year deployment plans in 2011.

As the Commission and utilities advance in the deployment of a Smart Gird, a Technical Working Group chartered to create broad goals can create a common vision for all involved. Preliminarily, the Commission would like to investigate whether to adopt goals for the following areas:

1. Customer goal - where do we want the customer to be in 2020?

2. Environmental goal - how will upgrading the grid benefit the environment (i.e., a reduction in GHG) by 2020? What should be the principal environmental goal?

3. Market goal - how does a Smart Market behave (i.e., an increase in renewable distributed generation) by 2020?

4. Utility goal - are there utility operational goals or customer satisfaction goals that should be a focus of a utility's Smart Grid efforts?

Consider, for example, a potential Smart Grid customer goal: 50 percent of a utility's customers using an online account. This may be a legitimate Smart Grid goal because the usefulness of the Smart Grid depends on customers utilizing the data provided to them in their decision-making. If it remains the case that a customer is only able to get this information if the customer either uses a utility "my account" system and/or a third-party portal that gives the same type of information, then it may be reasonable to set as a goal that by 2020 50% of each utility's customer base will be using some form of online access their consumption information.

Goals not only focus us on a common vision, but also provide the policy makers, the utilities and consumer advocates yet another reason to continue to encourage a smarter grid.

The Technical Working Group on goals should commence its work within 45 days of the issuance of this decision and begin the process of creating such goals. This report should be filed and served in this proceeding by November 1, 2012.