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Stakeholders press utilities over ‘0 capacity’ results, inactive circuits; CPUC deadline for remediation letters looms
Summary
Developers and advocates at a CPUC ICA workshop pressed utilities over a persistent share of ‘0 capacity’ hosting‑capacity results and a large number of circuits excluded from ICA reporting; CPUC directed utilities to file Tier 3 remediation advice letters within 60 days.
Stakeholders pressed Southern California Edison, PG&E and SDG&E at a California Public Utilities Commission workshop for clearer timelines to fix two linked problems: circuits excluded from ICA publication (so‑called inactive circuits) and a high number of nodes or segments that show zero available hosting capacity.
The arguments: dozens of developers and advocacy groups said the current ICA outputs are not reliably actionable for siting projects such as EV chargers and solar plus storage. IREC commenter Skye Stanfield said utility ICA results are ‘‘leaning on the slightly conservative side’’ but warned the large share of zeros and circuits marked inactive makes the map unreliable for developers.
Why it matters: Stakeholders said the errors cause unnecessary development cost and delay by screening sites out of fast‑track interconnection workflows when, they argue, the site could be serviceable after an engineer review or minor adjustments.
Facts and figures reported at the workshop: - SCE said it has reactivated 122 circuits since its 2023 systemwide ICA refresh, including 86 that had primary‑metered customer constraints; SCE said another set of circuits are being addressed and that some remain ineligible for ICA for reasons such as decommissioning. - PG&E, SCE and SDG&E reported varying shares of published circuit results that were recently refreshed; utilities said publication cadence and prioritization will continue to change as new automation and compute capacity come online.
CPUC action and next steps: Energy Division staff and attendees noted Decision 24 10 0 3 0 requires utilities to file Tier 3 advice letters proposing remediation plans. CPUC staff announced a schedule: utilities must submit Tier 3 advice letters within 60 days of the workshop (published workshop comments set a filing target of August 26, 2025), opening a 20‑day comment period on each filing. Energy Division’s Gabe Petlin told the room that the advice letter process is the vehicle to set remediation timelines and that, when approved, a resolution will place binding expectations on the utilities.
Stakeholder demands: Public Advocates Office, IREC, 350 Bay Area, CalStart and others asked that remediation advice letters include (1) binding schedules for reactivating inactive circuits and decreasing zeros, (2) resource and budget estimates for the work, and (3) measurable quality‑assurance or accuracy milestones so parties can assess progress.
Utility response: Utilities said they were working to prioritize circuits with the greatest near‑term impact (Rule 21 applications, circuits with long refresh intervals or known critical changes) and that limited compute and engineering capacity constrained full monthly refresh of all circuits. PG&E said it can refresh a large share of its system each month but that some workflows require engineer intervention where automated checks flag problems.
What remains unresolved: Parties differed over whether the CPUC’s existing orders already require monthly updates of circuits that ‘‘trigger’’ a refresh; utilities said there are reasonable exceptions while stakeholders asked the commission for firmer guidance. The Tier 3 advice letters are expected to be the forum to settle scope, resources and enforcement.
