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PUC advances Community Choice plan timeline but staff warns legislative details remain unfinished
Summary
Staff said it will seek authority to use standardized long‑term power contracts and aims to present program design April 14 and not‑to‑exceed rates to the Rate Fairness Board April 17. Advocates and LAFCO urged faster stakeholder inclusion and earlier Rate Fairness filing to avoid falling behind PG&E's marketing.
Commission staff and advocates spent the meeting debating the schedule and legal authority needed to launch San Francisco’s Community Choice Aggregation (CCA) program.
Barbara Hale, Assistant General Manager for Power, told the commission staff is preparing a legislative request to the Board of Supervisors and mayor to allow the PUC to use standardized power contracts (for example, Western Systems Power Pool and the EEI master agreement) for larger or longer procurements. Hale said the change would allow the utility to transact at more commercial speed and to finance new renewable generation. She also announced the appointment of Michael Hyams as acting director of the CCA program at the staff level.
Staff outlined a compressed timeline: stakeholder outreach the week of April 6, a commission preview and program‑design presentation on April 14, and a Rate Fairness Board presentation of not‑to‑exceed rates on April 17. Staff said they will attempt to introduce necessary legislation at the Board of Supervisors meeting scheduled shortly thereafter, with the objective of launching the program before the November election cycle if possible.
Commissioners and public advocates pressed staff on two matters: whether the commission can set a credible not‑to‑exceed rate before PG&E’s green‑tariff pricing is finalized, and how to make stakeholder engagement inclusive of community advocates. Staff explained the not‑to‑exceed rate is an adjustable ceiling based on indicative pricing and subsequent RFP results; staff said the mechanism used in prior procurements (indicative pricing later firmed by offers) will be applied here.
Public advocates urged speed and broad inclusion. Eric Brooks (public commenter) said the stakeholders invited by the mayor did not include community advocates and asked that advocates and LAFCO be included in the outreach. Jess Durbin Ackerman of the Sierra Club and Jason Fried of LAFCO asked for accelerated Rate Fairness scheduling and broader invitations. Jed Holtzman of 350 Bay Area urged concurrent drafting of RFPs and board processes where appropriate to compress the schedule and stressed the need for strong messaging to retain customers when PG&E markets competing products.
Staff said it will return with legislative language and regular schedule updates. No final contract authority or rate determination was adopted at this meeting.
