By Hudson Sangree

The California Public Utilities Commission on Thursday approved $830 million in incentives for self-generation with the goal of benefiting disadvantaged customers who live in fire-prone areas and have been subject to public safety power shutoffs (PSPS) by utilities trying to avoid starting wildfires.

When added to unspent funds from prior years, that brings the total for the CPUC’s Self-Generation Incentive Program (SGIP) to $1.2 billion.

“Broadly, it shifts the focus of SGIP towards promoting resiliency,” Commissioner Clifford Rechtschaffen said at the commission’s Thursday meeting.

Ninety percent of the new funding will be available to utility customers in communities impacted by wildfires and the threat of wildfires, Rechtschaffen said. It “substantially expands the universe of customers” eligible for incentives to those whose electricity has been shut off at least twice in fire-prevention blackouts, he said.

The unanimous decision orders the state’s largest investor-owned utilities — Pacific Gas and Electric, Southern California Edison and San Diego Gas & Electric — to collect a total of $166 million from ratepayers annually during each of the next five years. The changes were authorized by last year’s Senate Bill 700.

The largest category of potential beneficiaries fall under the category of “equity resilience,” Rechtschaffen said.

The efforts could provide full funding for home electricity storage systems for ratepayers in high fire-risk areas, such as the Sierra Nevada foothills and the state’s coastal ranges. Of particular concern, the commission said, are customers who are economically disadvantaged but need constant electricity to run medical devices.

About $400 million of the funds will be available to nonresidential customers in disadvantaged communities that provide critical services such as police and fire. Large-scale storage and renewable generation projects can qualify.

The utilities’ PSPS, allowed under state law and CPUC regulations, have caused tremendous controversy in California since last fall, when PG&E instituted widespread blackouts to prevent the outbreak of wildfires during dry, windy conditions.

PG&E said the shutoffs worked, though it’s trying to narrow the scope of the events going forward. The utility is in bankruptcy following two years of massive wildfires that killed nearly 100 people and destroyed at least 22,000 structures, according to the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection.

Customers and lawmakers, however, were outraged by the size of the blackouts, which left roughly 2.4 million customers in the dark last October. (See California Officials Hammer PG&E over Power Shutoffs.) PG&E was widely accused of being ill prepared for the shutoffs, especially after the utility’s websites crashed and the state had to step in to help on an emergency basis.

“Although the utilities are ultimately responsible for managing their electric systems, the CPUC cannot and should not stop demanding better ways to reduce the scope and impacts of power shutoffs without compromising public safety,” commission President Marybel Batjer told lawmakers in November. “This cannot and should not be repeated.”