BILL ANALYSIS Ó
AB 1124
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Date of Hearing: January 19, 2011
ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON APPROPRIATIONS
Felipe Fuentes, Chair
AB 1124 (Skinner) - As Amended: January 13, 2011
Policy Committee:
UtilitiesVote:11-2
Urgency: No State Mandated Local Program:
No Reimbursable:
SUMMARY
This bill requires the Public Utilities Commission (PUC), in
reviewing energy efficiency programs proposed by electrical and
gas corporations, to ensure compliance with the following
specified principles:
1)Achieve maximum energy savings for all customer classes by
adopting whole building, performance-based approaches.
2)Maximize opportunities of leveraging private capital by
increasing and streamlining access to on-bill repayment
programs without increasing utility costs.
3)Encourage job creation and training opportunities.
4)Create a single point of contact to coordinate customer access
to the programs by streamlining procedures for determining
property-level program enrollment and customer eligibility.
5)Provide equivalent funding and comparable measures for all
eligible customers, particularly those difficult to reach that
have not yet been served by the programs.
FISCAL EFFECT
The bill places the onus on the regulated utilities to propose
energy efficiency programs that meet the principles outlined
above. The bill does not appear, however, to limit program
design just to the listed principles or to require that the
entirety of the programs meet just these principles. PUC
workload would involve determining whether utility submittals
AB 1124
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adequately conform with program principles and determining what
modifications are necessary to achieve sufficient conformance.
This additional workload would require up to one additional
analyst position at an annual cost of $100,000. ÝPublic
Utilities Reimbursement Account]
COMMENTS
1)Background . The LIEE, now termed the Energy Savings Assistance
(ESA) Program uses ratepayer funds to provide no-cost
weatherization services (attic insulation, energy efficient
refrigerators, energy efficient furnaces, weather-stripping,
caulking, low-flow showerheads, water heater blankets, and
door and building envelope repairs) for low-income
Californians. These programs, which total about $870 million
in the current 2009-2011 cycle, are administered by the IOUs,
subject to commission rules and oversight. The qualifying
income thresholds under ESA are the same as for the CARE
Program, which provides a 20% discount on monthly electric and
gas bills.
2)Purpose . The PUC's rules for the ESA program prohibit the use
of program funds for replacement or repair of heating and
cooling systems in multifamily rental apartment buildings. The
author argues that more than one-third of ESA-eligible
low-income households reside in such buildings, where the
primary energy savings opportunity is to increase the
efficiency of these heating and hot water systems. In AB 1124,
the author intends that the PUC apply specific principles in
reviewing the utilities' energy efficiency program proposals,
while maintaining the utilities' flexibility in program
design.
Analysis Prepared by : Chuck Nicol / APPR. / (916) 319-2081