We’re Hiring! Junior- to Mid-level Expert (Public Utilities and Energy Law)

by Brittney Marra on June 6, 2019

Small Business Utility Advocates is seeking a new expert to help with our regulatory and legal advocacy in San Francisco at the California Public Utilities Commission (PUC).  We represent the small businesses community in utility matters and our mission includes promoting California’s broader energy and climate change policies.  Experience and interest in utility and energy law, helping small businesses, and working with California’s energy policies – including related to energy storage, electrification of vehicles, energy efficiency, decarbonization of buildings, and renewable energy – is essential.

Main Duties and Responsibilities:

  • Analyze utility proceedings at the PUC and develop positions on behalf of small businesses;
  • Engage in administrative advocacy; research, review, and interpret California’s energy and utility policies;
  • Create expert reports and submit written and oral testimony at the PUC; attend hearings as a witness and advocate;
  • Analyze and develop positions on behalf of small businesses related to California distributed energy resources (renewable energy, energy efficiency, energy storage, time of use rates, etc.); and
  • Actively participate in multi-stakeholder workshops, meetings, and other PUC events. Stakeholders include utilities, environmental groups, industry advocates, cities and counties, state officials, and others.

Job Requirements

  • B.A. or B.S. with relevant experience and basic understanding of utilities and energy matters;
  • Familiarity with utility, energy, and climate change regulation and policy;
  • Experience engaging in utilities regulatory proceedings is a plus;
  • Candidates should be self-directed and possess excellent analytical, research, writing and speaking skills;
  • Ability to work independently and as a team member with attorneys and other experts;
  • Ability to engage and orally advocate on behalf of small businesses at meetings, negotiations, and workgroups with a wide array of different stakeholders; and
  • Demonstrated project and case management skills to deal with the tasks above.

Application Process: Applicants should submit a cover letter, resume, professional references, and legal writing sample(s) to Britt Marra by email to britt@utilityadvocates.org.

Small Businesses Can Apply for Lower Economic Development Rates in SCE’s Territory

by Brittney Marra on June 1, 2019

Southern California Edison (SCE) is offering small businesses an energy discount through the Economic Development Rate (EDR) program to attract, retain, or expand your business operations in SCE’s service territory versus out of state. Specifically, the program offers a 12% discount on your energy bill over a 5-year period.

These are new options for small businesses (using less than 150 kW combined load) that were not previously available.

Please learn more please see: 2019 EDS FactSheet-Final

You can also contact SCE representatives below:

Michael Curley: (626) 633-4858; Michael.Curley@sce.com for San Bernardino and Riverside Counties, San Gabriel Valley.

Tod Sword: (310) 508-2166; Tod.Sword@sce.com for South Bay, Westside, Gateway Cities, Orange County

Laurel Shockley: (213) 479-8857; Laurel.Shockley@sce.com for Northern regions of SCE’s territory

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New Contract Opportunities — PG&E RFA for Energy Efficiency Programs (deadline: 5/22/2019)

by Brittney Marra on May 9, 2019

Small Business Utility Advocates (SBUA) would like to share an upcoming bid opportunity with Pacific Gas & Electric (PG&E). Please see details below.

Opportunity Announcement Type: RFA (Request for Abstract)

Title: Local Government Partnership Energy Efficiency Programs

Deadline: 5/22/2019

Description:

In accordance with Decision (“D.”) 18-01-004 – Decision Addressing Third-Party Solicitation Process for Energy Efficiency (“EE”) programs, PG&E is issuing a Request for Abstracts (“RFA”) soliciting abstracts from third-party EE program implementers to design, propose and ultimately implement EE programs.  In this solicitation, PG&E is seeking non-resource Local Government Partnership (“LGP”) EE program Abstracts which focus on the Public customer sector and Hard to Reach (“HTR”) and Disadvantaged Community (“DAC”) customer groups throughout PG&E’s service territory.

This is a two-stage solicitation process where PG&E will first collect program Abstracts prior to collecting full program proposals in a subsequent Request for Proposals (“RFP”). The Abstracts are intended to be a high-level summary of program design, innovation, and Bidder’s experience and capabilities. A detailed assessment of program viability, alignment with PG&E’s energy efficiency portfolio goals, applicable California legislative drivers and CPUC regulatory policies will be reviewed in the following RFP. Only Bidders selected through this RFA process will be eligible to submit a full program proposal in response to the RFP.

This is a targeted solicitation for non-resource LGP Programs and is limited to Bidders who fit at least one of the following eligibility criteria:

  • Existing lead local partners (“LLPs”) of current LGP Programs
  • Local governments
  • Entities who have an existing relationship with local government(s) and who can leverage local government expertise, access and infrastructure to implement energy efficiency programs

Bidders who do not meet at least one of these criteria will not be scored.

This solicitation will open on May 23, 2019.  All RFA related documents will be posted on the PG&E EE Solicitations website and available within PowerAdvocate once the solicitation has been opened.  Information provided to Bidders will include:

  • Bid submission forms
  • Bidders conference registration instructions
  • Instructions on how to submit an Abstract
  • Solicitation timeline and important dates
  • References to relevant regulatory decisions
  • Tools and trainings

PG&E will host a Bidder’s conference online via WebEx on June 5, 2019 from 9:00am – 12:00am PST to review the RFA structure and the abstract submission process. Please note that this event will be online only and not in-person. Please save the date accordingly.

Respond To:

Interested bidders must register with PowerAdvocate at this link: https://www.poweradvocate.com/pR.do?okey=92333&pubEvent=true. Interested bidders should contact PowerAdvocate for technical issues with registration.  PowerAdvocate can be reached at (857) 453-5800 or support@poweradvocate.com.

PG&E EE Solicitations website: https://www.pge.com/eesolicitations

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SBUA Enters Settlement to Promote Electric Vehicle Initiatives for Small Business

by Brittney Marra on December 10, 2018

Small Business Utility Advocates is heavily involved in transportation electrification proceedings at the California Public Utilities Commission (PUC) on behalf of small businesses.  Earlier this year we entered into a settlement agreement with the smaller investor owned utilities (Liberty Utilities, Bear Valley Electric Service, and PacifiCorp) to ensure their transportation electrification projects benefit smaller commercial customers.  The Settlement Agreement includes a number of small business incentives, including: electric infrastructure proposals designed to serve small business communities; marketing, education, and outreach measures that target small business customers to encourage their participation in transportation electrification; and new electric vehicle rates for these customers.

See the Settlement Agreement (along with the motion to adopt it) here: Settlement Agreement (and Motion).

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New Contract Opportunities That Are Perfect for a Small Business

by Brittney Marra on October 10, 2018

Pacific Gas and Electric Company (PG&E) has new contract opportunities for small businesses to help raise awareness and provide education to the Central Valley, micro- and small-sized PG&E customers on optimal energy usage, distributed energy resources, and PG&E digital tools. The objective is to increase awareness of PG&E offerings; create greater awareness of PG&Es products and services; provide a personalized, high touch connectivity; digitization and ease of payments; availability of distributed energy resources and programs.  Please contact SBUA here to find out more: Learn More About Small Business Contracting Opportunities.

We look forward to updating the small business community on future contract opportunities with the investor owned utilities.

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SBUA Intervenes Southern California Edison’s in Electric Vehicle Case

by Brittney Marra on August 28, 2018

SBUA has raised raised protests against Southern California Edison’s proposed $760 million plan to expand its electric vehicle (EV) infrastructure to California’s Public Utilities Commission (PUC).  SBUA supports the promotion of EV across California and applauds the efforts of the PUC and utilities to do so. However, we also want to ensure that the EV programs, which cost hundreds of millions of dollars and are paid for in significant part by small businesses, are designed to maximize benefits for the utilities’ smaller commercial customers.

See an article by Utility Dive discussing this case and SBUA’s intervention: Utility Dive Discusses SBUA’s Intervention.

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Power Bill Outrage Against SDG&E by Small Businesses

by Brittney Marra on August 25, 2018

Small businesses in SDG&E’s territory have been struggling with big utility bills.  On August 22, 2018, CBS reported a story on this issue: CBS Reports on Small Business Power Bills.

Nonetheless, SDG&E has requested to collect more money from ratepayers, including small businesses. In January 2018, SBUA filed as a party before the California Public Utilities Commission to intervene on San Diego Gas & Electric’s (SDG&E) request for revenue and rate increases related to its Electric and Gas Services. SDG&E requests that the Commission authorizes a combined $2.199 billion revenue requirement ($433 million gas and $1.766 billion electric) to be effective January 1, 2019. For small commercial customers, SDG&E is proposing to increase the Revenue Requirement from the current $489.0M to $514.8M in 2019, representing a 5.3% increase , which represents the largest rate increase for any customer class.  (See SDG&E Application (A.17-10-007), Appendix E).

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What are TOU and Peak Pricing?

by Lillian Rafii on August 12, 2018

From Board Member Lillian Rafii:

If you are small business based in California, it is more than likely that your utility company uses Time-of-Use or Peak Pricing.  Curious about what these terms mean and what the difference is?  These two topics can be confusing, especially as Time-of-Use (“TOU”) pricing is used in conjunction with peak pricing.  Often, they overlap!  All business customers have been (or will soon be) converted to TOU rate plans as required by the California Public Utilities Commission, so it is helpful to think strategically about options now.  To demystify some of the mayhem, this post gives a description of each term with descriptions of each program.  Links to the following three main California utility companies’ respective programs are provided: Pacific Gas & Electric Company (“PG&E”), Southern California Edison (“SCE”), and San Diego Gas & Electric (“SDG&E”).

We hope you find this helpful in navigating your utility bill and pricing options! [click to continue…]

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PG&E Creates Program to Install EV Charging Stations at Small Businesses

by Lillian Rafii on March 27, 2017

As part of the recent movement for California utilities to promote transportation grid electrification, PG&E is in the midst of creating a program to install Electric Vehicle (EV) charging stations for electric vehicles at commercial and multi-unit residential locations.  PG&E will cover between 25% to 100% of the cost of installing the EV stations.  The site will need to provide a set number of parking spaces to qualify.  Certain special allocations exist that require PG&E to place the charging stations in a diversity of locations.

The program has not been launched yet, however, if any SBUA members are interested in learning more, check out the program description on PG&E’s website here:

To sign up for the interest list for this program to receive updates for when the program launches, click here:

PG&E’s Small Business Workshop

by Lillian Rafii on July 7, 2016

Board Member Lillian Rafii

In July, I represented SBUA in the annual PG&E Small Business Consultation and Feedback Forum. PG&E hosts this meeting to generate ideas and hear from small businesses, their representatives, local chambers of commerce, and other related organizations on diverse and small business inclusion in PG&E’s spending. Wells Fargo also participated, brought members of their small business and diverse business team to the meeting, and presented features they have developed in servicing small businesses. The discussion was vibrant, energetic, and at times bracingly honest. It was fantastic being around passionate small and diverse business representatives and it is exciting to continue SBUA’s involvement in advocating for small businesses in the utility world. I was also impressed at PG&E’s dedication to representing small businesses in their contracting budget and the work they have done so far. In the past year, they have allocated over 30% of their supplier budget to small and diverse businesses. [click to continue…]

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