XIII. Education, Marketing and Outreach

The staff report observes that the CSI must include a component for providing good information to prospective project developers. Several parties supported this program element. SDREO describes some of the outreach and education efforts it has already undertaken as part of the SGIP program, including the completion of a project in which it developed a map of all 15,000 large non-residential rooftops in the City of San Diego.

We agree that the success of the CSI program is likely to be affected significantly by the extent to which the Commission and program administrators are able to identify project developments and the types of projects that are most suitable for developer properties. Marketing efforts will have to include the provision of information about program rules, interface with energy efficiency requirements, and vendors. The SGIP has focused mainly on commercial and industrial customer investments so program administrators will need to expand their efforts to include residential and low income customers. The CEC may be willing to assist in this effort because of its experience with residential customer outreach for the ERP program. SGIP program administrators should also be prepared to assist CSI program administrators with marketing data and information about their marketing and education efforts for the SGIP program. The CSI program administrators should also be prepared to coordinate marketing and outreach efforts with and take advantage of opportunities presented by developing relationships with energy efficiency administrators, including Flex Your Power. We are impressed with SDREO's efforts to map San Diego rooftops as part of the SGIP program and expect them to make good use of this information for the CSI program.

We concur with the staff's recommendation to require program administrators to submit an education and outreach plan to the Commission by June 1, 2006. The plan should be filed in the form of a motion for adoption by the assigned Commissioner.