Opening Comments Filed on PD Approving Voluntary Allocations and Modifying the Market Offer Process

CalCCA:

• The permission granted in the PD for the investor-owned utilities (IOUs) to include bid floors in their respective Market Offers should be removed. The PD justifies the inclusion of bid floors on an unsupported and unproven supposition that market manipulation can occur, and on a misleading characterization of the treatment of “unsold” Renewables Portfolio Standard (RPS) resources for the purposes of calculating the PCIA.
• The Commission should ensure that Market Offer deliveries begin expeditiously, by (1) removing the requirement in the PD that the IOUs offer long-term transactions in this first Market Offer if such a requirement will cause delay in the issuance of the solicitation, (2) incorporating CalCCA’s proposed schedule allowing Market Offer deliveries to begin no later than mid-February, 2023, and (3) ensuring that load-serving entities (LSEs) receive full calendar year value for 2023 even if deliveries do not begin on January 1, 2023.

• The PD should include a clarification that the “solicitation period” during which the IOUs may not hold concurrent RPS solicitations includes the period from the date of the posting through the final approval of contracts resulting from the Market Offers.

PG&E:

• The PD errs by ordering the removal of PG&E’s “waived claims” language that is utilized throughout PG&E’s Commission-approved RPS solicitation protocols and provides bidders appropriate recourse.
• The PD should be revised to recognize that the Joint Investor-Owned Utility (“IOU”) Market Offer ratemaking proposal is consistent with Decision 19-10-001.
• The PD should be revised to authorize IOUs to solely offer short-term contracts as part of the first Market Offer process.
• The PD errs by failing to account for the timeframe required to obtain Commission approval of short-term Market Offer pro forma contract, and any PG&E long-term Market Offer pro forma contract.
• The PD errs by ordering code of conduct restrictions that will impair PG&E’s ability to participate in its own Market Offer process.
• PG&E should be authorized to bid in Southern California Edison Company’s and San Diego Gas & Electric Company’s Market Offer solicitations; and The Commission should find that any IOU transaction executed through a Market Offer process is fully recoverable by the IOU in rates over the life of the transaction, subject to CPUC review of the IOU’s administration of the transaction.

SCE:

• The California Public Utilities Commission (“Commission”) should eliminate the proposal that 35% of SCE’s Power Charge Indifference Adjustment (“PCIA”)-eligible long-term Renewable Energy Credits (“RECs”) be offered through the Market Offer, or, in the alternative, limit the sales of PCIA-eligible long-term RECs to those that would no longer be long-term before the next Voluntary Allocation and Market Offer (“VAMO”) process.
• The Commission should authorize SCE to use the selection methodology that it proposes in its Track 1 Draft 2022 Renewables Portfolio Standard (“RPS”) – Procurement Plan - Market Offer Process, Confidential Appendix A, dated May 16, 2022, which is consistent with the selection methodology that it uses in all of its solicitations, other than for the sale of its bundled portfolio of RPS RECs sales under its approved RPS Plan.
• The Commission should authorize SCE to include the “waived claims” language in its bid protocols as it is consistent with its bid protocols in all of its solicitations, including its approved 2021 RPS Plan, and is used throughout the industry, including in some Community Choice Aggregators (“CCAs”) bid protocols.
• The Commission should authorize SCE to submit bids in the Market Offer processes of the other Investor-Owned Utilities (“IOUs”)1 - PG&E and SDG&E.

SDG&E:

• SDG&E recommends that the Commission clarify its disposition of the remaining 65 percent of unallocated and unsold portion of the long-term PCIA-eligible portfolio by modifying: (i) OP 3 by striking the phrase “short-term” and adding the phrase “remaining after Voluntary Allocations” before the period; and, (ii) OP 4 by inserting the phrase “that will lose their long-term nature before the next VAMO” to reference the pool of long-term PCIA-eligible RPS contracts the IOUs will make available in the current Market Offer so not to incorrectly value those attributes in the short-term when the market may value them differently in a competitive solicitation.
• SDG&E urges the Commission to revisit its approach in the PD regarding employee transfers involved in the VAMO transactions and adopt only measures truly necessary in specific situations and are also workable by the utility to achieve a sound implementation of the VAMO process. The PD errs in adopting proposals in this regard that accomplish neither of these objectives.
• The PD errs in both law and fact by asserting, without explanation or support, that the Joint IOU Market Offer proposal for allocation of Market Offer sales revenue starting with the 2024 ERRA Forecast Applications is inconsistent with D.19-10-001.
• SDG&E agrees with the Commission’s determination that a portion of SDG&E’s confidential proposal is inconsistent with the other IOUs’ proposals and the rules previously established in the PCIA proceeding, specifically in D.21-05-030 and D.19-10-001, regarding valuation of unsold portions of the PCIA-eligible RPS portfolio. SDG&E will revise its proposed confidential framework accordingly.
• The Commission should modify OP 13 to require that the IOUs schedule update be provided 15 days from the later of (1) the issuance date of this Decision; and (2) the Commission’s final and non-appealable approval of the Market Offer pro forma contracts regarding the Market Offer.