The California Public Utilities Commission and California Energy Commission recently issued an update (PDF, 5 MB) to the state’s Energy Action Plan, which the agencies last revised in 2005. The report sets goals for meeting electricity and natural gas needs in California, and it emphasizes that greater energy efficiency and demand response efforts are needed to help comply with the state’s landmark greenhouse gas laws, AB 32 (the Global Warming Solutions Act of 2006) and SB 1368 (the emissions performance standard for all retail providers of electricity in California). The update asserts that efficiency is the most important tool for GHG reduction in the energy and gas sectors and that “meeting our AB 32 goals will require, under any scenario, unprecedented levels of energy efficiency investment.” The EAP reported that conservation from utility efficiency programs has remained about the same since the mid-1980s, while savings from building and appliance standards have risen. And, because “current rebate programs have not been adequate to capture all cost-effective energy savings” in buildings, the plan calls on utilities to offer customers comprehensive packages and strategies to save energy. To “reinvigorate” the effort to reach 5% of peak demand coming from consumers responding to prices, a goal called for in the original EAP, the update recommends understandable and transparent dynamic-pricing tariffs and demand response programs, time-differentiated default rates for large users and the pairing of advanced meters with automatic infrastructure and dynamic-pricing tariffs from public utilities.

• Read the 2008 Update to California’s Energy Action Plan
• Read “Updated Energy Action Plan Takes a Climate-Change State of Mind,” By Hillary Corrigan, California Energy Markets (2/22/08) (subscription required)
• Read more: “CEC’s Draft 2007 Integrated Energy Policy Report Recommends Feed-In Tariffs for Renewables, Ramped Up Efficiency Efforts” (e-Newswire, 10/17/07)
• Read more: “CPUC Proposal Would Require ‘Zero Net Energy’ Buildings, Urges Utilities to Develop Unified Statewide Efficiency Plan” (e-Newswire, 10/3/07)
• Read more: “CPUC Approves Deal to Allow Commercial Building Owners in PG&E Territory to Individually Meter Tenants” (e-Newswire, 9/19/07)