Greentech Media covered implications of the California Public Utilities Commission’s newly approved proposal to increase the Power Charge Indifference Adjustment paid to utilities when customers leave to source renewable energy under the state’s Direct Access Program. AEE’s insight is included. Link to the full article here.

Excerpts of the GTM story are below:

On Thursday, the California Public Utilities Commission unanimously approved an alternative proposal, written by Commissioner Carla Peterman, that makes big changes to the Power Charge Indifference Adjustment. In simple terms, the PCIA is an “exit fee” that CCAs (Community Choice Aggregators), as well as competitive energy providers under the state’s Direct Access program, pay utilities when they take over their customers…

The alternative PCIA decision adopted Thursday has been decried by CCA advocates, who say it goes too far in shifting legacy utility costs onto departing customers’ bills. Specifically, the decision would allow utility-owned power plants built before 2002 to be included in PCIA calculations, as well as remove an existing 10-year cap on the inclusion of post-2002 costs…

Just how much CCA customers’ bills will rise under the new PCIA regime depends on the utility, the type of customer, their energy usage and other factors, according to a Thursday press release from the CPUC. Looking at a typical residential customer leaving a utility for a CCA this year, the CPUC estimated the change will lead to a bill increase of 1.68 percent in PG&E’s territory, 2.5 percent in Southern California Edison territory, and 5.24 percent in San Diego Gas & Electric Territory...

This is not the final decision on the PCIA coming from the CPUC. The Advanced Energy Economy (AEE) business group, which has several big corporate members participating in California’s Direct Access market, noted in a Thursday statement that the CPUC will next be scoping activity for "Phase 2" of this proceeding track. This will focus on "determining more durable market-based solutions to PCIA reform, including the big question of portfolio optimization and allocation," AEE wrote.

See the complete GTM story here.