California Public Utilities Commission Issues Proposed Decisions Regarding New 33% Renewables Portfolio Standard

The two proposed decisions from Commissioner Ferron discussed in previous blog entries are still pending -- nothing final just yet.

The first proposed decision deals with the portfolio content categories-- basically determining how much value renewable energy credit (REC) owners will get for selling their RECs.  The biggest fight there seems to be whether or not in-state generators who consume part or all of their generation (like folks who have solar on their roofs) can receive a little (by categorizing them in so-called Bucket 3) or a lot of additional money (by categorizing them in so-called Bucket 1) for the RECs that are generated along with their energy production.  For more information about the bucket classifications, look at our previous and much more technical advisory.

Right now the Commission says they should receive a little additional money, but there's a lot of pressure for them to say they should receive a lot of additional money.  We'll see.  The Commissioners discussed this item at the last Commission meeting in San Francisco and there were a lot of different opinions on how this should end up.

The second proposed decision deals with procurement targets.  Though many industry parties disagree with the decision, certainty regarding the target appears to be more important than the targets themselves as retail sellers will procure as much or as little as they need to be compliant without too much difficulty.  The real controversy surrounding the second proposed decision is what it fails to do-- provide certainty and rules surrounding categorization, counting, and banking of RECs.

Both decisions are slated for final Commission decision in December.  Stay tuned to see if and what revisions might occur.