Undercurrents

The California Public Utilities Commission March 1 approved 5-0 the appointment of 10 members to the newly created Disadvantaged Communities Advisory Group.

The members are to provide the CPUC and California Energy Commission advice on whether proposed clean energy and pollution reduction programs would benefit struggling communities in polluted areas.

Creation of this advisory group by the commissions is required by SB 350.

The approved appointees are predominantly representatives from social justice and underrepresented minority groups, including from Greenlining, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People’s Riverside Branch, the Housing & Redevelopment Agency, the Sacramento Promise Zone and the Tuolumne Me-Wuk Tribal Council.

The advisory board members include Stephanie Chen, Stan Greschner, Angela Islas, Roger Lin, Adriano Martinez, Jodi Pincus, Andres Ramirez, Woodie Rucker-Hayes, Phoebe Seaton and Tyrone Williams.

In other news, Commissioner Carla Peterman during Thursday’s meeting pointed out that her proceeding on allocating the private utilities’ costs for power purchased for customers who’ve departed for direct access or community choice programs is expected to be finalized within an “aggressive” schedule of 12 months. That would be the end of July and six months ahead of the statutory deadline, Peterman said.

She said the so-called Power Charge Indifference Adjustment proceeding remains on track in spite of requests by community energy and direct access providers for a three-week extension to submit testimony because of utility delays in providing them needed information. ﮞ ﮞ ﮞ ﮞ ﮞ

A new CAESAR, or CESER, is born.

The latter acronym stands for a new Department of Energy office that Energy Secretary Rick Perry is forming to help protect energy facilities against cyberattacks. It will formally be known as the Office of Cybersecurity, Energy Security, & Emergency Response.

The new office was discussed March 1 at a U.S. Senate Energy & Natural Resources Committee hearing on cybersecurity for the nation’s energy infrastructure.

Citing growing threats to that infrastructure, Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-AK), who chairs the panel, said the new office will have “big shoes to fill.” Murkowski cited growing attempts to compromise the nation’s energy facilities through cyberattacks, including a digital assault last month of Entergy, a major power company that operates four nuclear power plants in the South.

“The CESER office,” Assistant Secretary of Energy Bruce Walker told the committee, “will play an essential role in coordinating government and industry efforts to address these energy sector threats.”

He said President Trump has proposed a budget of more than $95 million for the new office in 2019.

Walker said the office’s initial focus will be on hardening the nation’s power grid by working with DOE’s national laboratories to research and develop “the next generation of cybersecurity control systems, components, and devices including a greater ability to share time-critical data with industry to detect, prevent, and recover from cyber events.”

The office, he said, also will focus on improving the ability of the nation’s energy infrastructure to withstand and quickly recover from natural disasters, such as storms, floods, and fires. —William J. Kelly & Elizabeth McCarthy

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Undercurrents

William J. Kelly

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