At least four Community Choice Aggregators and utilities are now implementing the California Public Utilities Commission program to encourage communities to build solar projects that disadvantaged ratepayers can sign up for with a guaranteed 20% reduction in monthly bills.

This program is part of a larger decision (D18-06-027) described below. The CPUC designed the “Community Solar Green Tariff” for disadvantaged homeowners who cannot afford to install solar systems on their roofs and or want to sign up for community solar. The CPUC handed six CCAs opportunities to build solar programs for their low income communities.  Most of them, along with California’s three investor owned utilities, are now designing those programs.

The CPUC named the two programs the Disadvantaged Communities Green Tariff program and the Community Solar Green Tariff program. They both provide 20% rate discounts from their regular tariff to qualified customers. In addition, the Community Solar Green Tariff must have a city sponsor and the community solar system must be located within five miles of a designated disadvantaged community. For the most part, the CCAs have chosen to name their programs differently.

Program costs are being paid for through the Greenhouse Gas Auction Proceeds and Public Purpose Program funds.

Where these programs originated

Former California State Assembly member Henry T Perea (D) Fresno, wrote two bills to bring affordable energy to disadvantaged communities in California’s San Joaquin Valley (AB 2672, 2014), and all residential customers in disadvantaged communities not limited to the San Juaquin Valley (AB 327, 2013). (Perea resigned his seat in 2014 to take a job in the private sector.)

AB 2672 was designed to install either natural gas or electric appliances such as stoves, heaters and coolers to replace wood and propane burners to approximately 1,900 customers in a pilot program. Customer rates would be reduced by 20%.  However, a maximum of 40% of the 1,900 customers received equipment by 2023, nine years after the program was signed into law. The giveaway ends in December 2023, with analysis of the program being conducted in 2024.

The program has a complex design and created a small organization to operate the program. It began contacting customers at the beginning of the 2020 pandemic, which set back the program.  (See a full review of this program in “Other Stories”)

On the other hand, AB 327, the Green Tariff and the Community Solar Green Tariff programs were designed to be administered by the three investor owned utilities, Pacific Gas & Electric, San Diego Gas & Electric and Southern California Edison, and the six CCAs. The latter program requires that the community solar project be located within five miles of the community zoned “disadvantaged.” Furthermore, in order to qualify for either program customers must first qualify for the California Alternate Rates for Energy (CARE) and Family Electric Rate Assistance (FERA) program.

What CCAs are doing

 Marin Clean Energy is one of the six CCAs chosen by the CPUC to implement the Community Solar Green Tariff.  MCE launched its Green Access Program in 2021 and 3,200 customers are being supplied with power from the Cottonwood solar project located in Kern and Kings Counties.

MCE said in a July 2023 press release it is offering 20% discounts to eligible customers under its Community Solar Connection program for disadvantaged homeowners. It said it is seeking qualified suppliers who will build solar projects to be located within the five-mile requirement. MCE did not return phone calls to provide further details.

Peninsula Clean Energy is another CCA which is developing a solar project in its Green Access Program to qualified disadvantaged residents for a community solar project in its service territory in San Mateo County or the City of Los Banos. The residents must live within a designated eligible census tract that suffers from multiple sources of pollution. The media spokesman said Peninsula has about 1,400 residential customers enrolled as of September 2023.

East Bay Community Center (recently renamed AVA) released a request for offers in September 2021 for a solar project to provide 5.726 MW in the green tariff program and 1.525 MW for its community solar green tariff program.  However, it did not get any responses. It tried again in December 2022 and is now evaluating proposals. Eleanor Smith, connected communities manager at AVA, expects a contract to be awarded by the end of 2023.

Smith said the future solar project will serve about 800 customers who have not yet been enrolled.  About 2,700 customers are enrolled in the green tariff program and are getting power from a resource outside AVA’s service territory. They will be transferred to the new solar project in 2025 when it comes online.  The 800 projected community solar enrollees cannot use that resource since it is outside the service territory. Smith said her team is also working on a contract with another client, not associated with the RFO.

San Diego Community Power released a request for proposals to build solar projects for both the Green Tariff and the Community Solar Green Tariff on August 25, 2023. It will remain open until February 24, 2024. It is generating interest in the proposed project or projects by working with solar developers and local community-based organizations to generate interest in the RFO, said Jill Monroe in an email.

Renamed the Solar Discount and the Community Solar projects, SDCP has not enrolled customers yet but will do so when the projects are expected to be operational in 2025. These programs are part of SDCP’s “Solar for Our Communities.”

The Clean Power Alliance and CleanPowerSF, the two remaining CCAs designated by the CPUC to develop Green Tariff programs, did not respond to queries asking for information about their plans.

Utilities are enrolling customers as well.

Southern California Edison has 94 community solar customers waitlisted for its 3-MW solar project scheduled come online in December 2024. No other information describing the program was available.

Pacific Gas & Electric has no customers waitlisted for their community solar green tariff programs. However, it does have 9,133 customers in its Green Tariff program to install solar systems on their roofs.  PG&E also has 12 MW of solar projects to serve the disadvantaged Green Tariff customers. This information was found in the latest quarterly reports the utilities are required to file with the CPUC.

San Diego Gas and Electric launched a request seeking power purchase agreements in March of 2021 for the Solar Green Tariff Shared Renewable Program. The winning bidder was accepted in May 2021. It filed an advice letter describing the PPAs with the CPUC and anticipated approval in the fourth quarter of 2021. No further program information came forth from SDG&E or the CPUC.