We support SB 1414 and expanding demand response
Demand response directly saves consumers money through lower energy bills, and indirectly saves by reducing the need for investment in costly and polluting “peaker” power plants.
The Clean Coalition supports SB 1414 (Wolk), which will ensure that regulators and utilities use DemandResponse (DR) to meet system needs, and affirm the state’s existing Loading Order mandate to use cost-effective DR before fossil resources.
DR programs rely on voluntary changes to the usage patterns of customers. These programs directly saveconsumers money through lower energy bills, and indirectly save consumers money by reducing the needfor investment in costly and polluting “peaker” power plants. Although demand response can be one ofthe most cost-effective ways for California to meet its greenhouse gas emissions goals, the State lagsbehind much of the nation in implementing DR programs that capture the full range of benefits of DR.
The Clean Coalition is a California-based nonprofit organization whose mission is to accelerate thetransition to renewable energy and a modern grid through technical, policy, and project developmentexpertise. The Clean Coalition drives policy innovation to remove barriers to procurement,interconnection, and realizing the full potential of integrated distributed energy resources, such asdistributed generation, advanced inverters, DR, and energy storage. The Clean Coalition also works withutilities to develop community microgrid projects, that demonstrate how optimized portfolios – with highlevels of local renewable energy balanced by intelligent grid solutions like demand response and storage –can maintain or improve grid reliability.
Demand Response programs and energy efficiency are at the top of California’s loading order, whichrequires utilities to plan to procure all available cost-effective, reliable, and available energy efficiency,DR, and renewables before conventional power plants. However, when planning to make investments tomeet electrical demand requirements in their Resource Adequacy studies, utilities are only required toplan out investments in generation. SB 1414 corrects this oversight and requires the utilities to also planfor meeting system needs with DR.
DR can play a vital role in reliably meeting system needs at a reasonable cost while meeting California’sclimate change and renewable energy goals. We are pleased to support SB 1414 and appreciate yourattention to enabling California’s clean and secure energy future.
