San Diego Community Power receives quarterly legislative and regulatory briefing; staff flags federal tax-credit risk and state battery funding opportunities

San Diego Community Power received a quarterly update on April 24 on state and federal legislative activity and ongoing regulatory proceedings that could affect its customer programs and power procurement.

The board heard that staff is supporting SB 540, a bill by Sen. Becker to expand the California Independent System Operator (CAISO) into a regional Western market, which staff said could lower generation costs and improve grid reliability. Patrick Welch, associate director of legislative affairs, told directors the regional market “would result in $700,000,000 in cost savings across the state for generation, increased grid reliability, and also increased resiliency.”

Why it matters: the item outlined a set of near-term fiscal and policy risks and opportunities for community choice aggregators (CCAs). Staff described state-level funding streams that could support local battery and home-electrification programs, and federal-level budget negotiations that could reduce clean-energy tax credits that CCAs and local developers rely on.

State policy and program highlights

- Staff said they are actively pursuing state funding to support local battery incentives. The team described two CEC-related opportunities: a proposed Distributed Electricity Backup Assets program with a $180,000,000 request in the governor’s budget…