Eighteen California lawmakers submitted a joint letter on Nov. 25 to the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) about delays in turning on solar and storage customers at the state’s two largest utilities. The letter urges the CPUC to hold Pacific Gas & Electric (PG&E) and Southern California Edison (SCE) accountable for repeatedly missing state-mandated timelines.
“Californians deserve an energy system that accelerates our climate goals – not one that continues to delay,” said Assembly Member Dawn Addis (Morro Bay). “We are leading the way on clean energy, but PG&E and SCE must stop slowing us down. Every missed deadline costs families and businesses money and slows our climate progress. With major federal timelines looming, the CPUC must enforce the rules and ensure utilities deliver.”
Customers looking to install solar panels and batteries must apply for utility approval to turn on their system. This approval process, known as interconnection, is governed by Rule 21, which sets mandatory timelines for each step in the process. PG&E and SCE routinely ignore these timelines, causing major delays to solar installations.
The CPUC set a standard in 2020 that utilities meet established timelines for 95% of projects and directed utilities to submit quarterly reports on their performance. These reports show that compliance rates for three steps of the assessment process are as low as 27% to 45%, and timelines for three other steps are met only 53% to 81% of the time. The CPUC now has nearly five years of data showing routine violations, but no action to enforce these rules has been forthcoming.
“Rules aren’t rules if a company knows it can get away with ignoring the requirements,” said Kevin Luo, policy and market development manager at the California Solar & Storage Association. “PG&E and SCE have the ability to follow the rules and would comply if there were consequences.”
These delays slow the state’s progress toward its clean energy goals and increase costs for customers installing solar and storage. While customers wait for utility payments, they continue to hold loans and pay interest for unpredictably long periods of time. They are also forced to continue paying high rates to utilities while their investments in clean energy fail.
The state has many critical goals that depend on timely action from utilities, including the rapid deployment of new EV charging stations and housing developments. While the state has only recently begun setting mandatory timelines for these goals, the long-standing lack of enforcement of interconnection timelines is bad for utility compliance more broadly.
The CPUC is currently investigating what measures are needed to improve utility performance. A decision is expected in the coming months.
News item from CALSSA
