Summer 2021 Procurement Track: R.20-11-003

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Description

This Order Instituting Rulemaking (OIR) initiates a rulemaking proceeding to consider near-term actions to increase available resource for summer 2021. The OIR provides an overview of near-term actions identified by the Joint Agency Preliminary Root Cause Analysis resulting from last year’s extreme weather events that caused excessive demand. These potential actions include:

  • Increasing month ahead Resource Adequacy (RA) requirements for 2021
  • Limiting energy exports during events that impact grid reliability
  • Reducing limitations on fossil back-up generation
  • Directing IOU emergency procurement from existing generation resources
  • Evaluation of customer load reduction and demand response efforts

The proceeding is ongoing and CalChoice, through CalCCA, is supporting testimony efforts on summer 2021 issues, including supply and demand side solutions.

In December, a ruling was issued directing IOU procurement. The ruling contemplates the IOUs procuring on behalf of all customers in their service territories, with costs and benefits allocated to all benefitting customers through the Cost Allocation Mechanism (CAM). CAM is a regulatory process for allocating the cost of procurement across all benefitting customers, including CCAs.

CalChoice, through CalCCA, submitted comments making a recommendation intended to limit the procurement volume and requesting parameters be set so as not to disturb the existing monthly RA market.

Next Steps

A final decision is expected in March.