Transportation electrification is moving ahead in California with the adoption of a CPUC decision and several important bills moving through the legislative process.  This blog will briefly discuss the CPUC decision and provide a short summary of related bills.

Yesterday, the CPUC unanimously (see agenda item # 42) approved a revised Decision on the investor owned utilities (IOUs) SB 350 Transportation Electrification Standard Review Projects.  SB 350 (de León) (Chapter 547, Statutes of 2015) required the CPUC to direct the IOUs to file application for programs and investments to accelerate widespread transportation electrification.  The estimated costs of the projects total approximately $739 million with $29.5 million earmarked for the evaluation of projects. A summary table is below:

Under the revised Decision, SDG&E’s Residential Charging Program (RCP) is now a three-year program that denied utility ownership of charging infrastructure on the customer-side of the meter and instead requires a rebate and utility run marketplace to deploy chargers and related equipment. The program is now non-mandatory because, as the CPUC stated “[w]hile we find tremendous value in testing and learning from the approved RCP, it is unclear whether SDG&E and other parties also find value in this program.” SDG&E may file an Advice Letter (AL) to withdraw the program in the future. Consequently, the program will operate as an up-front rebate program for up to 60,000 electric vehicle service equipment (EVSE) and EVSE installation with the customer owning the EVSE.  This reflects the existing market place where residential EV owners own and maintain the charging equipment.  The CPUC summarized the program in the following Table:

The CPUC also approved PG&E’s DC Fast Charging Make-Ready program with a scope of 52 sites and all customer-sided make-ready infrastructure support a minimum of 150 kW charging equipment.  Sites located in Disadvantaged Communities (DACs) will be eligible for a maximum rebate of $25,000 (not to exceed the full cost of the EVSE and installation) to be applied to each EVSE purchase and 25% of the sites hosts located in or adjacent to DACs.

The CPUC adopted SCE’s and PG&E’s medium- and heavy-duty vehicle charging programs. The Table below summarizes the budget and assumptions:

SCE:

PG&E:

The CPUC also determined that these programs will be considered per se reasonable provided they meet the following:

• For PG&E, a minimum of 700 make-ready installations are fully contracted for by 2024 and 6,500 additional vehicles are electrified that are directly attributable to the authorized program achieved by site hosts procuring at least two EVs or converting at least two diesel fueled vehicles to electric;
• For SCE, a minimum of 870 make-ready installations are fully contracted for by 2024 and 8,490 additional vehicles are electrified that are directly attributable to the authorized program achieved by site hosts procuring at least two EVs or converting at least two diesel fueled vehicles to electric;
• a minimum of 15 percent of the infrastructure budget serves transit agencies (in each service territory);
• a maximum of 10 percent of the infrastructure budget serves forklifts (in each service territory);
• a minimum of 25 percent of the infrastructure budget serves vehicles operating at ports and warehouses in SCE’s territory;
• a minimum of 40 percent of the infrastructure budget results in installations in DACs in SCE’s territory;
• a minimum of 25 percent of the infrastructure budget results in installations in DACs in PG&E’s territory;
• rebate levels for transit and school bus EVSE are established in consultation with the utility’s respective PAC. Rebate levels should not exceed 50 percent of the charger cost;
• rebate levels for EVSE installed at sites in DACs are established in consultation with the utility’s respective PAC. Rebate levels should not exceed 50 percent of the charger cost; and
• a maximum of 10 percent of the infrastructure budget is spent on program administration (by each utility).

Finally, the CPUC approved SCE proposed commercial EV rate with modification.

On the legislative side of the coin, the following bills related to charging infrastructure also hit major legislative deadlines to remain active:

SB 1000 (Lara): Addresses local government prohibition for chargers and disproportionate deployment of charging station infrastructure.

AB 2127 (Ting): Addresses statewide assessment of electric vehicle charging infrastructure needed to support 5 million EVs.

AB 2145 (Reyes): Addresses charger deployment, funding, and medium- and heavy-duty transportation electrification.

SB 1434 (Leyva): Addresses transportation electrification rate design.

Additional information on related transportation electrification bills and other bills we track can be found on our Legislative Center website.  A full update will be forthcoming next week with an assessment of bills that remain active after today’s statutory deadline for bills to pass their house of origin.