The California Public Utilities Commission adopted measures Thursday to prepare for this year’s fire season by accelerating the deployment of microgrids and approving the wildfire prevention plans of investor-owned utilities.
The commissioners also approved a controversial proposal to ensure the state’s community choice aggregators meet resource adequacy requirements through a central procurement mechanism. And they passed rules governing the way utilities shut off power to customers who cannot pay their bills.
The wildfire measures were a priority, with the state’s summer-and-fall fire season looming.
Pacific Gas and Electric’s decision to shut off power to vast swaths of its service territory last year to prevent wildfires spurred the microgrid measure, Commissioner Genevieve Shiroma said.
Legislation passed two years ago, Senate Bill 1339, directed the CPUC to “facilitate the commercialization of microgrids for distribution customers of large electrical corporations.” The commission established a new section in its energy division focused on microgrids and opened rulemaking on the matter in September 2019.
“Shortly thereafter, on Oct. 26, 2019, in the face of winds approaching almost 90 mph, we experienced PG&E turning off power to almost a million customers across 38 counties in an effort to minimize the risk of catastrophic wildfires,” Shiroma said. “From this experience, we learned that not only was PG&E’s execution of the public safety power shutoff protocols inadequate, but that the commission would have to use a multi-pronged approach to mitigate the effects of PSPS.
The CPUC retooled its rulemaking to focus on microgrids and resiliency ahead of the 2020 fire season, along with the long-term commercialization of microgrids under SB 1339. (See CPUC Proposal Would Promote Microgrids.)
Shiroma called the microgrid effort “a sprint and a marathon.”
The measure adopted Thursday orders investor-owned utilities to streamline and expedite interconnection processes for microgrid resiliency projects and to work with local and tribal governments to bring the projects online by late summer to keep electricity flowing during power shutoffs.
The state’s peak fire season typically lasts from early September into November, when rain returns after months of drought in California’s Mediterranean climate.
The plan calls for utilities to standardize application processes for microgrids, to expedite signoffs on installed projects and to increase staffing to accelerate interconnections.
The CPUC approved controversial plans by PG&E to deploy hundreds of diesel generators to power substations and key facilities but only for the 2020 fire season. Commissioners expressed dismay at the idea of using diesel fuel amid the state’s push for clean energy but said it was the only immediate solution to widescale power shutoffs.
PG&E praised the CPUC’s decision.
“As PG&E continues our enhanced and expanded efforts to reduce wildfire risks, we are also working to reduce the scope, duration and impact of future PSPS events,” Andrew Vesey, the utility’s CEO, said in the statement. “A key piece of this strategy is developing and deploying microgrids.”
Wildfire Mitigation Plans
The CPUC also criticized PG&E during a vote on the 2020 wildfire mitigation plans of the state’s IOUs — all of which were approved but some with provisos.
PG&E equipment started conflagrations in 2017 and 2018 that were among the state’s deadliest and most destructive blazes, forcing it to file for bankruptcy in January 2019.
PG&E met minimum requirements in its latest wildfire prevention plan, said Caroline Thomas Jacobs, director of the CPUC Wildfire Safety Division, established last year. The utility’s main causes of fire ignition were objects contacting its power lines and equipment failures.
PG&E plans to install covered conductors to enhance vegetation management to harden its grid to deal with the problems, but the company failed to provide specifics on how its measures would curtail risks, Thomas Jacobs said.
In her written assessment, Thomas Jacobs said, “PG&E outlines improvements being made to its risk assessment tools, but it is unclear how these tools are used to drive prioritization of specific wildfire mitigation initiatives to minimize wildfire risk and PSPS.”
The CPUC ordered PG&E to correct its deficiencies in the coming weeks.
Commissioners also praised the division’s newly developed wildfire risk measurement tools, including a “Maturity Model” that “evaluates the utilities’ wildfire risk mitigation efforts across 10 categories and 52 specific capabilities and helps identify utility best practices and current strengths and weaknesses,” according to a CPUC press release.
“The Wildfire Safety Division’s approach has enhanced the state’s ability to conduct oversight of utility wildfire risk reduction by imposing clear requirements and expecting improvement each year,” the release said.
Central Procurement
The CPUC approved another controversial proposal that names PG&E and Southern California Edison as central buyers to procure local, multi-year resource adequacy for load-serving entities in their service territories.
The measure addressed the difficulty some community choice aggregators have had procuring sufficient resources to meet demand, with the state facing a potential capacity shortfall starting next year. (See Calif. Lawmakers Reveal Growing Divisions over CCAs.)
The CPUC rejected a settlement among entities, including the CCAs and CAISO, that would make CCAs primarily responsible for procurement with a “residual” central buyer to step in where needed. The CPUC instead adopted a hybrid approach that tasks the two big investor-owned utilities with ensuring reliability but allows CCAs to procure RA when possible.
CCAs remained opposed to the measure.
CalCCA, the main advocacy group for CCAs, said in a statement that it was “disappointed that the commission has adopted a central procurement framework for local resource adequacy that puts investor-owned utilities, rather than an independent entity, in the powerful role of central buyer.”
Shutoffs for Nonpayment
With COVID-19 wreaking financial havoc, the CPUC approved a major initiative to limit the circumstances in which utilities can cut off power to customers who can’t afford to pay their bills.
It ordered four major IOUs — PG&E, Southern California Edison, Southern California Gas and San Diego Gas & Electric — to implement policies and rule changes that protect customers from disconnections.
The changes include a program that forgives customer debt in return for future on-time payments and a cap on charges based on customer income. Individuals with medical conditions can qualify for increased assistance.
“Disconnecting utility services has significant societal and health impacts, and now more than ever we need to ensure the lights are staying on,” Commissioner Martha Guzman Aceves said in a statement after the vote.