The California Public Utilities Commission voted 4-0 on Oct. 29 to require Pacific Gas and Electric Co., Southern California Edison and San Diego Gas & Electric to develop a common framework for coordinating distributed energy resources, such as flexible customer-side energy technologies and other resources connected to local grids.
Commissioner Baker recused himself from the vote. The decision in Rulemaking 21-06-017 directs the utilities to convene a working group and submit a joint application within 12 months. The application must address grid services, cost-effectiveness, interoperability, dispatch, aggregation, technology, ownership and coordination with the California Independent System Operator.
The decision also requires the utilities to include a load-flexibility scenario in distribution planning. CPUC staff presented modeled potential cost reductions through 2040 of $1.8 billion for PG&E, $320 million to $1.38 billion for SCE and $697 million for SDG&E.
Those figures are projections under planning scenarios, not realized savings. The commission will review implementation plans and future applications before the framework is put into effect, and the vote did not determine the utilities’ eventual costs or ratepayer impacts.
