In their push to go green, some of California's utilities want more green from their customers.
For decades, California has been among the best at getting its citizens to use less energy, and the state's largest utilities have been more than happy to take credit for the success of programs that do such things as pay rebates when customers buy power-sipping appliances.
But to meet ambitious targets to slash the state's output of greenhouse gases, California and its utilities must now push energy efficiency like never before.
Southern California Edison Co., Pacific Gas & Electric Co., San Diego Gas & Electric Co. and Southern California Gas Co. have said they are ready to do their part -- but they want customers to hand them another $400 million to $1 billion in cash incentives. Extra rewards, on top of the incentives the utilities already get for administering the customer-funded power-saving programs, could add as much as $2.50 to the average ratepayer's monthly bill.
"Audacity is a pretty good way to frame it," California Energy Commission member John Geesman said of the companies' pursuit of big energy-efficiency rewards. "It ought not to take bribes to get them to do that."
Some consumer groups share Geesman's view.
Even at $500 million, the utility rewards would be "a huge waste of money," said Marcel Hawiger, staff attorney for the Utility Reform Network in San Francisco.
That money, he said, would be better spent in ways other than padding the profits on programs the utilities already administer. The funds would be enough, he calculated, to give every California household five energy-saving light bulbs or weatherize more than 300,000 low-income homes.
The utilities' incentive request is backed by many energy regulators, the Natural Resource Defense Council and some groups that promote conservation. They believe that allowing utilities to profit from customer-funded efficiency programs is reasonable and essential given the urgency of making Californians use less power, which would reduce the greenhouse gases that electricity generation creates.
"It's part of a package that we see as necessary to really promote and make sure that cost-effective efficiency is being pursued," said Audrey Chang, an NRDC staff scientist. The goal is to make saving power more attractive to the utilities, she said, "so they're putting their best resources, their best personnel, into energy efficiency."
