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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2021-08-26; Clean Energy Alliance JPA; ; Clean Energy Alliance Operational, Administrative and Regulatory Affairs Update•►-. -LIiii CLEAN ENERGY ALLIANCE Staff Report DATE: August 26, 2021 TO: Clean Energy Alliance Board of Directors FROM: Barbara Boswell, Interim Chief Executive Officer ITEM2: Clean Energy Alliance Operational, Administrative and Regulatory Affairs Update RECOMMENDATION 1) Receive and File Operational and Administrative Update Report from Interim CEO. 2) Receive Community Choice Aggregation Regulatory Affairs Report from Special Counsel. BACKGROUND AND DISCUSSION This report provides an update to the Clean Energy Alliance (CEA) Board regarding the status of operational, administrative, and regulatory affairs activities. OPERATIONAL UPDATE CEA completed mass enrollment of its customers in June 2021, with a handful of clean up items needed. On an on-going basis, as customers establish new electric service within CEA territory, they will be automatically enrolled with CEA and receive two notices notifying them of the enrollment and providing power supply options and opt-out information. Expansion of Clean Energy Alliance CEA staff continues to work with County of San Diego (County) staff as they prepare the analysis of options to the county for bringing community choice energy (CCE) to the unincorporated County residents and businesses. The results of the analysis will be presented to the County Board of Supervisors at its meeting August 31, 2021. Should the decision of the Board of Supervisors be to join Clean Energy Alliance, a resolution will be brought to the next CEA Board meeting to consider approval of adding the County as a CEA member. CEA staff and consultants would then begin preparing the Amended Implementation Plan that will be required to be submitted to the California Public Utilities Commission by January 1, 2022, for a 2023 CCE implementation. Programs Update August 26, 2021 Admin & Regulatory Update Page 2 of 4 CEA staff has been investigating opportunities to offer programs to customers with no outflow of cash to CEA and has identified a program geared towards residential customers and another towards commercial/municipal customers. The first is a partnership with OhmConnect that provides smart t hermostats to residential customers free of charge while encouraging customers to reduce usage during peak demand times and Flex Alerts. CEA will partner for purposes of marketing and program enrollment information. Driving customer energy usage to reduce during peak times lowers CEA's exposure to peak energy pricing and has potential for reducing overall power supply costs, while also reducing risk of blackouts. CEA is also issuing a request for proposal (RFP) seeking interested parties to provide solar/battery faci lities to our commercial and municipa l customers at no cost to the customer or CEA, with the goal of reducing energy costs to the customers and increasing grid reliability and reducing power supply costs to CEA. The RFP will be released by t he end of August. Call Center Activity The chart below reflects call activity to CEA's ca ll center through July 31, 2021: calls to Call Center 1,200 1,000 10) . ., . ., ,., Mr-ll ..... ,, ...... u Jun-ll Ju~l The call center saw a drop off in activity, which is expected as enrollments have now been completed, and final notices have now gone out. " ,. " 20 10 Call Center Avg Seconds to Answer Avg Call Duration -A11,1s«omsto~ -A\'ICIIIQ.ota1,ai Jun-21 August 26, 2021 Admin & Regulatory Update Page 3 of 4 Calls are being answered within 14 seconds on average, with an average duration of approximately 10 minutes. The chart below reflects the monthly and cumulative opt-outs for CEA. Opt-Out Stats ..... s.ooo ,,ooo , .... ,.ooo 1.000 • Apr-21 MIV·21 -MCll'lthty Opt-01.l Stats -c:urruAatl'le:Opt-cx.a Opt-out requests have dropped to their lowest since March, with CEA's overall participation rate at 92.2%. August 26, 2021 Admin & Regulatory Update Page 4 of4 220 customers have opted up to Green Impact, 100% renewable energy and 85 customers have opted down to Clean Impact. Return to In-Person Boord Meetings Governor Newsom's Executive Order N-29-20 temporarily amended the Brown Act to allow public agencies to hold remote meetings without in-person public participation since last March. With the Governor's Beyond the Blueprint plan to reopen California, as well as Executive Order N-08-21, Executive Order N-29-20 will be lifted on September 30, 2021. CEA's in-person Board meetings will resume with its regular meeting on October 28, 2021, scheduled to be hosted by the City of Del Mar. The Brown Act rules related to teleconference meetings will be back in effect. A Board Member may still meet remotely after September 30, but the agenda would need to identify the remote location of the Board member, the public would have a right to participate in the meeting at the Board member's remote location, and an agenda would need to be timely posted at each remote location. Staff will coordinate with the member agencies regarding hosting the in-person CEA meetings. Resource Adequacy Compliance As a load serving entity serving customers in 2021, CEA has an obligation to procure Resource Adequacy (RA), based on quantities allocated by CPUC and California Independent System Operator (CAISO). RA procurements do not supply any energy to CEA or its customers, rather it commits the seller to be available to supply energy to the grid if called upon by the CAISO and reduce the possibility of outages. This process is key to ensuring grid reliability. CEA successfully procured all its 2021 -2023 RA requirements and is fully compliant with its RA obligation. CEA is in progress of procuring its 2022 -2024 RA obligations, which are required to be completed by October 2021. Contracts $50,000 -$100,000 entered into by Interim Chief Executive Officer I VENDOR None I DESCRIPTION I AMOUNT REGULATORY UPDATE CEA's regulatory attorney, Ty Tosdal, will provide an update to the Board on current regulatory activities (Attachment A). FISCAL IMPACT There is no fiscal impact by this action. ATTACHMENTS Attachment A-Tosdal APC Regulatory Update Report Clean Energy Alliance Board Update T o SDAL ENERGY & ENVIRONMENTAL LAW August 26, 2021 TyTosdal TosdalAPC I tern 2 Attachment Overview • Executive Order and Emergency Reliability (R. 20-1 1-003) • Financial Security Requirements (R. 03-10-033) • Customer Bill Debt Due to COVID-19 (R.21-02-014) • SDG&E ERRA Forecast 2022 (A. 21-04-0 I 0) Executive Order and Emergency Reliability • Governor Newsom issued an executive order proclaiming a state of emergency due to climate change on July 30. • Recognizes dangers to power generation and delivery from extreme heat and fire . • Eg) Hydropower from Oregon is down 4,000 MW • Instructs CPUC to take action to increase clean energy supply and reduce demand. • CPUC taking action in emergency reliability proceeding. • Reducing time to bring projects online. • RA and other procurement rule changes. • Demand response and voluntary usage reductions. Financial Security Requirenients • Financial Security Requirements are a form of collateral, similar to a bond, that protect the utility against a mass involuntary return of CCA customers. • Administrative costs • Procurement costs • Failure ofWestern Community Energy has triggered a mass involuntary return for the first time in CCA history. • SCE is seeking $14.7 million from Western for customer reentry fees under this framework, in addition to millions owed under separate contracts. • Utilities and Public Utilities Commission staff are reevaluating some of the inputs and methods used to determine FSR amount. • SDG&E made recent changes to its inputs that we are examining, although CEA's FSR remains at the minimum $147,000 level. Custonier Bill Debt due to COVID-19 • IOUs are required to enroll eligible residential and commercial customers in a 24-month amortization plan by September 30 for payment arrears. • Allocation of partial payments • Customers returning with arrearages • Billing transparency • Distribution of federal and state CAPP funding SDG&E ERRA Forecast 2022 • Major issue last year was the use of an outdated sales forecast for 2021 that did not incorporate departing load. • Administrative law judge amended scoping order for 2022 to include updated sales forecast this year and in future years that incorporate departing load. • New testimony from SDG&E in that proceeding acknowledges that an updated sales forecast will be provided in November. • Work remains to examine the methodology used and determine whether it is reasonable.