No Holiday Rest for Energy Policy Actions

Key energy policy developments continued to unfold over the holiday period in California and the nation, with state utility regulators proposing a gas hookup moratorium in Los Angeles County for new homes and buildings and Marin County local government agencies going 100 percent renewable.

In addition, Pacific Gas & Electric announced it was not paying fourth quarter dividends.

In Washington, federal energy regulators decided just before Christmas to propose wider reporting requirements for cyber security incidents related to the nation’s bulk electric system.

On Dec. 15, the California Public Utilities Commission proposed requiring SoCal Gas to place a moratorium on hooking up gas service for new construction in unspecified areas of Los Angeles County. The move came after the County Board of Supervisors failed to act on a moratorium recommended earlier by the CPUC.

The commission could order the moratorium at its Jan. 11 meeting, which would run until March 31 unless currently out-of-service pipelines feeding gas into the sprawling Southern California area are brought back into service before then.

The moratorium, proposed by CPUC executive director Tim Sullivan, is needed due to the potential for gas shortages this winter in the area due to the temporary closure of three major pipelines, including one that burst last fall.

It’s unknown how many construction projects could be affected.

In another development, PG&E announced Dec. 20 it would not pay upcoming dividends because of potential liability from the significant October wildfires in Northern California.

“After extensive consideration and in light of the uncertainty associated with the causes and potential liabilities associated with these wildfires as well as state policy uncertainties, the PG&E boards determined that suspending the common and preferred stock dividends is prudent with respect to cash conservation and is in the best long-term interests of the companies, our customers and our shareholders,” PG&E Corp. Chair of the Board Richard Kelly stated Dec. 20.

The vote to suspend dividends follows a controversial decision by the CPUC in late November to not allow San Diego Gas & Electric to recover $379 million in wildfire costs from ratepayers because the utility was not a “prudent manager” of the wildfire risks. The CPUC voted unanimously that under inverse condemnation law, SDG&E was not entitled to recover the costs arising from three extensive wildfires in 2007 sparked by utility infrastructure.

Elsewhere, Marin Clean Energy announced Dec. 19 that all local government agencies in Marin County are now running on 100 percent renewable power.

They’ve done so by enrolling in MCE’s “deep green” energy service program, which delivers 100 percent renewable electricity for a premium, according to Dawn Weisz, the community choice program’s chief executive officer.

Weisz said that the county’s 12 local governments have eliminated an estimated 3,570 metric tons of pollution by enrolling in the deep green program.

Meanwhile, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission Dec. 21 proposed revising its Critical Infrastructure Protection Reliability Standard to improve mandatory reporting of cyber security incidents. The aim is to include incidents that might facilitate future attempts to harm reliable operation of the nation’s bulk electric system.

“Cyber security is critical to protecting the nation’s energy infrastructure, and we need to be vigilant and proactive in doing so,” said FERC Chair Kevin McIntyre. “To that end, this proposal is an important part of improving our awareness of existing as well as future cyber security threats and potential vulnerabilities.”

Under the current standard, incidents must be reported only if they have compromised or disrupted one or more reliability tasks.

However, FERC is concerned this threshold may understate the true scope of cyber-related threats facing the grid. In particular, the commission’s proposal says that the lack of any reported incidents in 2015 and 2016 suggests a gap in the current mandatory reporting requirement.

Under the proposal, FERC wants to broaden the requirement to include mandatory reporting of cyber security incidents that compromise, or attempt to compromise, a responsible entity’s electronic security perimeter or associated electronic access control or monitoring systems. Comments are due in 60 days. —William J. Kelly & Elizabeth McCarthy

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No Holiday Rest for Energy Policy Actions

William J. Kelly

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