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Energy storage and electric vehicle chargers would become eligible for zero- and low-interest loans under legislation passed out of the Senate Energy Utilities and Communications Committee July 12. The bill expands an existing program run by the California Energy Commission to fund public entities’ energy efficiency and renewable energy projects.

Two other bills also got the committee’s okay: One allows public electric utilities to issue low-cost customer-backed bonds to cover increasing expenses. The other permits community energy to recover their investments in bioenergy projects.

AB 33 by Phil Ting (D-San Francisco) would not only include storage and EV chargers to the list of projects eligible for CEC loans but also make Native Tribal governments eligible participants. To date, only local governments and public institutions can apply.

AB 33 passed 13-0.

The CEC’s Energy Conservation Assistance Account, funded by ratepayers, has provided loans to energy efficiency and renewable projects for more than four decades. More than 1,000 loans have been issued and there have been no loan defaults.

Account funds get recycled back into the revolving loan program and generate green jobs, Kim Stone, California Solar and Storage Association lobbyist, told the committee.

The program exists to lower energy use. In order to accommodate EV charging, which actually increases electricity use, AB 33 allows public and Tribal entities to bundle charging projects with solar and energy storage.

The CEC loans are capped at $3 million per project and awarded on a first-come, first-serve basis.

Muni customer-backed bonds

AB 758 by Assemblymember Adrin Nazarian (D-North Hollywood) would authorize municipally-owned electric utilities to issue “rate reduction bonds” to finance system improvements and upgrades, including to meet the state’s clean energy mandates. The bonds would be paid back by charges on customer utility bills, the same as investor-owned utility ratepayer-recovery bonds. Like those, these muni bonds also must cost less than traditional financing. They typically are AAA rated.

This cheaper financing tool is already available to local public water and wastewater utilities, but not electric munis. “There is no public policy rationale for this inequity in the law,” according to Nazarian.

Trinity County Public Utilities District General Manager Paul Hauser said his agency’s credit rating was downgraded because it was unable to get wildfire insurance because of the state law making utilities strictly liable for fires sparked by utility equipment. The downgrade raised the financially-strapped county’s borrowing costs.

Another approved bill, AB 843 by Assemblymember Cecilia Aguiar-Curry (D-Winters), would allow community choice entities to seek recovery of the costs of their bioenergy projects under a California Public Utilities Commission program. The CPUC created what is known as the Bioenergy Market Adjusting Tariff, but until now it has only allowed private utilities to cover the costs of high priced biogas, biomethane and biomass projects up to 5 MW each.

Community energy is paying for the program so it should be able “to proceed in a way that makes sense for the community,” Aguiar-Curry said.

The CPUC required that the costs of the program be spread beyond private utility ratepayers to others, including community energy customers. Community choice aggregators did not object to paying for part of the program costs as long as they were also able to tap into the program. Legislation is required to allow CCAs to participate.

The CPUC program is capped at a total of 250 megawatts. But only 40 MW of projects are in tariff program, leaving a lot of room for other projects.

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Sam Chang, chief financial operator of the community aggregator Pioneer Community Energy, said the bill allows equitable access to biomass projects in Placer County, in the dry Sierra Nevada foothills. The county hopes to expand biomass plants in the area, with burned trees being a principal fuel source.

The program allows cost recovery for a total 110 MW per hour in biogas production from wastewater treatment plants, landfills, food processing, and co-digestion, which is priced at just under $123 per MWh. Up to 90 MW from dairy and other bioenergy projects are allowed, with an average cost up to $188 MWh. Forest biomass can contribute 50 MW. It is the highest cost at almost $200 MWh.