WHO PAYS FOR NEW ENERGY, UTILITY OR CONSUMER?

If the utilities do the work, they deserve to get paid. The only way to beat them is to distribute the production.

As utilities go green, some are seeing red; Consumer groups rap efforts to gain rewards for conservation
Elizabeth Douglass, June 15, 2007 (LA Times)

WHO
Southern California Edison Co., Pacific Gas & Electric Co., San Diego Gas & Electric Co. (Mark Gaines, director of consumer programs), Southern California Gas Co., California Public Utilities Commission (President Michael Peevey), California Energy Commission (member John Geesman), Utility Reform Network (Marcel Hawiger, staff attorney), Natural Resource Defense Council (NRDC) (Audrey Chang, staff scientist),
central gen is what we have now, distributed gen cuts utilities' profits (click to enlarge)

WHAT
To meet California’s ambitious goal of cutting greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions 25% by 2020, utilities must push efficiency. This incurs expense at the same time it reduces income. Some argue this will cost $400 million to $1 billion and result in a $2.50/month rate increase.

WHEN
- California made the decision to be more power efficient in the early 1980s, instituting formal programs to conserve.
- 2006-2008 efficiency program is now working.
- PUC will rule on incentives costs and rate increases by the end of the summer.

WHERE
California, a harbinger.

WHY
- Some prefer to set aside the extra charges to fund energy-saving light bulbs and weatherization for low-income homes.
- Others see the logic of allowing utilities to recover losses for promoting efficiency
- California has long had efficiency programs, appliance and building standards which have kept per-capita power use flat for 30 years and saved 40,000 gigawatt-hours of electricity (12,000 megawatss of peak power), the equivalent of 24 power plants.
- Ratepayer cost for current program is $2 billion for 2006, 2007, 2008. This will cut 2009 gas and electric bill 2% ($2.7 billion).
- SDG&E's plan: investor-owned utilities rewarded $403 million if they meet 2006-08 targets, $1 billion+ if 150% of goals.
- PG&E's plan: $538 million for meeting the marks, $686 million for beating them.
- Utility Reform Network: $54 million for 100% success, $100 million for better.
- Estimates of customer costs range from $1.25/month to $2.50/month.
services the utilities provide (click to enlarge)

QUOTES
- Geesman: "Audacity is a pretty good way to frame it…It ought not to take bribes to get them to do that."
- Hawiger: “…[the utility rewards would be] "a huge waste of money…"
Chang: "It's part of a package that we see as necessary to really promote and make sure that cost-effective efficiency is being pursued…so they're putting their best resources, their best personnel, into energy efficiency."
- Gaines: "We're definitely pushing the envelope very hard, and that requires extraordinary measures, and one of those is earnings … for shareholders…The amount is certainly what the commission needs to decide on."
- Hawiger: "We're not even asking them to foot the bill. We're asking them to do the right things for a small fee rather than for a huge profit…Joe Q. Public should be outraged that the utilities are going around bragging about how green they are … and at the same time, they're asking for profits so that they will do what we're already paying them to do, but better."