2019 in Review

2019 was a big year for San José Clean Energy (SJCE) and a historic year for the California energy market. In February, SJCE launched electricity generation service to San José residents and businesses at a lower cost than PG&E. In August, we signed our first long-term Power Purchase Agreement for 100 MW of new solar and 10 MW of new battery storage to be built in Fresno County.

Meanwhile, PG&E’s second bankruptcy in two decades, a devastating fire season, and an unprecedented series of planned blackouts ushered in a time of enormous uncertainty in the California energy market at large.

In these disruptive times, 98.4% of San José residents and businesses remain SJCE customers. As a result, you can look forward to community-wide benefits through lower rates, new rate designs, programs, and incentives. We also want to be a resource to help our business customers make informed energy choices, and this newsletter is part of that mission.

We will provide information on rate changes, regulatory and legislative updates, programs, incentives, SJCE updates and events, and news on the PG&E bankruptcy.

Please feel free to reach out to us directly as well—we want to hear what is important to your organization and how SJCE can be a valuable partner in achieving your energy goals.

Mark Bachman, Account Services Manager
San José Clean Energy

EV charging infrastructure to double in San José

SJCE is partnering with the California Energy Commission (CEC) to fund an incentive program for the installation of EV charging stations in workplaces, destination and shopping centers, and multi-family housing. $14 million will be dedicated specifically to projects in San José. The program will launch in spring 2020, and incentives will be disbursed over the next two to four years.

The incentive funding will cover most of the charging station installation costs and electrical infrastructure upgrades for approximately 100 new Direct Current Fast charging ports and 1,400 new Level 2 charging ports.

Increased availability of charging stations helps spur further EV adoption, which can go a long way in supporting California’s climate goals. San José’s funding is part of a larger regional investment in Santa Clara and San Mateo counties from the CEC’s California Electric Vehicle Infrastructure Project (CALeVIP).

EV charging stations are an attractive amenity for many commercial facilities. If you are interested in applying for incentives to install EV charging infrastructure, please reach out directly to SJCE’s account services manager: Mark.Bachman@SanJoseCA.gov.

New “B” time-of-use rates

PG&E and the other California investor-owned utilities (IOUs) are rolling out new Time-of-Use “B” rates for all commercial and industrial customers. These rates are optional as of November 2019 but will become mandatory in November 2020.

SJCE will match these rates for the generation component of the bill and provide the same discount as well as our 1% savings.

The new B rates can be found here and follow the same naming convention as standard rates (for example, E-19 becomes B-19). These rates shorten the summer period, shift the most expensive “peak” power from the middle of the day into the evening, and introduce a “Super Off-Peak” winter rate.

The B rates are part of a statewide effort to mitigate the Duck Curve phenomenon and support the state goal of increasing the percentage of clean energy used in power generation. The rates will also better align customers’ retail costs with the new low wholesale market costs during the middle of the day created by surging solar generation. Interested customers can monitor the wholesale energy prices on the California ISO market price map.

You can opt-in to your applicable B rate by contacting PG&E or accessing their PG&E online portal. To determine the financial impact of these rates, customers can use PG&E's Rate Comparison Tool. Your selection will be communicated to SJCE and no other action is required.

Staying on top of irregular rate changes

Keeping track of PG&E rate changes is a challenge for any energy or sustainability professional. In the past, PG&E generally had one or two rate changes per year. For the past years, though, PG&E has introduced several major rate changes at various times throughout the year. Additionally, every tariff (A10, E19, E20) has multiple bill components for energy (kWh) and demand (kW), with separate generation (SJCE) and delivery (PG&E) charges.

Through this newsletter and direct support from our account services team, SJCE will provide information to help customers understand these complex energy costs.

In 2019, six PG&E generation rate changes for commercial customers went into effect in January, March, May, July, October, and November. SJCE began service in February and only matched four of them, so the SJCE discount was greater than 1% for part of 2019.

For example, our team estimates that since our February launch, PG&E’s generation rates have risen approximately 6.81% for E-19S customers and 6.99% for E-20S customers. Although PG&E’s historical tariff database format complicates the tracking of distribution components, for E-19S and E-20S, we estimate that the distribution components have risen between 5.44%-16.67% and 5.61%-20% since January 2019.

SJCE expects a small decrease in PG&E generation rates in March 2020, which SJCE will match, but generation rate increases may follow later in the year. For distribution rates, PG&E and the other California IOUs have requested significant increases that are pending California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) approval. This Los Angeles Times article by Sammy Roth provides additional context.

Future stand-alone battery storage opportunities

SJCE recently issued a Request for Information (RFI) about battery storage, which closed on November 12. We collected information about all aspects of battery storage-only projects (e.g., scheduling, pricing, siting) to inform Requests for Offers (RFO) for these types of projects.

PG&E’s power shutoffs have spurred more customer interest in battery storage to ensure facilities’ energy resiliency. Opportunities are emerging for storage projects in California to access additional revenue streams beyond the standard demand charge management, such as in the California Independent System Operator’s (CAISO) Energy Storage and Distributed Energy Resources proceeding.

California community choice programs are working with our customers and governmental partners to help safeguard our communities’ critical facilities and understand how energy storage can help meet our shared sustainability and economic goals. If your team is currently developing or considering an energy storage project, please watch this space for future opportunities or reach out directly to Mark.Bachman@SanJoseCA.gov. We’re happy to identify any existing incentives or programs that may be of assistance.

The impact of going TotalGreen

Every business in every sector can help fight climate change. All SJCE customers have the option to source their electricity entirely from renewable energy by upgrading to TotalGreen, and in 2019, several large commercial customers stepped up. eBay, Hewlett Packard Enterprise, and Samsung joined dozens of other businesses and over 1,000 residents in choosing TotalGreen.

TotalGreen customers help ensure that SJCE procures more renewable energy resources while making cost-effective progress toward their own sustainability goals and eliminating GHG emissions from their electricity consumption. SJCE procures the highest standard renewables in California (PCC1) for all TotalGreen customers, and TotalGreen is Green-e certified by the Center for Resource Solutions.

If you are interested in analyzing whether TotalGreen is a good solution for your organization, please reach out directly to Mark.Bachman@SanJoseCA.gov. Our team can help you collect and analyze your usage information and provide a cost estimate, as well as a comparison to SJCE’s default power service, GreenSource.