Dawn Weisz, CEO of MCE and president of the CalCCA Board of Directors participated in the March 19, 2019 informational hearing hosted by the California Senate Energy, Utilities and Communications Committee.
CLICK HERE to hear the full California Senate Energy, Utilities and Communications Committee hearing. Ms. Weisz’s testimony begins at 1:17:58.
MCE, California’s first CCA, is committed to providing continued thought leadership and innovation to support the state’s clean energy transformation as legislators, policy makers, and other clean energy stakeholders consider changes needed to support the growth of CCAs and California’s reliability and energy goals.
Ms. Weisz’s comments focused on three important recommendations in support of this paradigm shift:
- The California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) should narrow their focus to safety & IOU cost management to protect ratepayers. The result would be the ability to maximize value for ratepayers and ensure data transparency to support rate design, load shifting programs, and de-energizing power lines due to wildfires.
- The California Energy Commission (CEC) should replace the role the CPUC has played regarding CCA planning, reporting, and oversight activities. This would allow the CPUC to focus on safety and IOU cost management, and eliminate inefficient and confusing planning and reporting processes currently coordinated by the CPUC.
- Reliability planning needs clear, consistent requirements going forward. CAISO is in the best position to determine specific reliability requirements so that Load Serving Entities can fill the needs. Moving this function to CAISO would eliminate a process that is currently costly, inefficient, and unclear, and also allow the CPUC to focus on safety and IOU cost management.
