VIII. Agency Collaboration Expected in this Proceeding

Consistent with the goals of the Energy Action Plan, this Commission appreciates and reaffirms its close working relationship with the CEC on DG issues, extending a collaboration that began five years ago with R.98-12-015 and continued with R.99-10-025 and R.98-07-073. The CEC will not be considered a formal party to this proceeding; instead we will establish a close staff-level collaboration on the full range of DG issues. For instance, we will examine the CEC's R&D efforts in the area of DG for guidance in the development of our cost-benefit analyses. We continue our collaboration with the CEC renewables program to ensure consistency between statewide incentive programs. We also endorse the CEC's continued oversight of Rule 21 interconnection activities and look to the CEC and the Rule 21 Working Group for policy guidance in the area of interconnection issues.

We also invite the participation on a collaborative, non-party basis of the CPA and the state Air Resources Board and California Environmental Protection Agency, as these latter two agencies seek to understand the environmental impacts of the various DG technologies being deployed in the state.

Lastly, we note that the participation of renewable DG technologies in the state's new Renewable Portfolio Standard (RPS) program is under consideration in the RPS phase of the Procurement proceeding. We will coordinate with that proceeding as well, and lend support from this record to the state's ambitious goal of achieving a generation portfolio that is at least 20% renewable.

As a general principle we hope to streamline the process of data collection and analysis by all agencies involved in state DG policy, and make this information available to the public to the fullest extent possible.