Press Mention Politico Pro January 13, 2021
SACE Quoted
PSC pressed to broaden energy conservation rule
In this mention
The Office of Public Counsel and renewable energy advocates, including the Southern Alliance for Clean Energy, urged Florida's Public Service Commission to broaden a proposed rule revision on energy conservation goals for utilities. SACE's energy efficiency director Forest Bradley-Wright testified that Florida's energy efficiency policies are outdated and that the agency's proposed rewrite fails to strengthen goals or address underlying efficiency gaps. Advocates argued that stronger conservation programs would save customers money, reduce pollution, and create jobs, while also helping low-income residents avoid utility disconnections.
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PSC pressed to broaden energy conservation rule
By Bruce Ritchie
01/14/2021 06:17 PM EST
The Office of Public Counsel and renewable energy advocates on Thursday urged the Public Service Commission to broaden the scope of a proposed rule revision setting energy conservation goals for utilities.
Why is important: Advocates said the agency's staff proposed rewrite would fail to strengthen the goals or address the underlying reasons that cause Florida to lag in energy efficiency.
"Florida's energy efficiency policies are undeniably out of date and out of step with modern practices," Forest Bradley-Wright, energy efficiency director with the Southern Alliance for Clean Energy, told commission staff during a nearly three-hour workshop.
The agency says the proposed rewrite would create a more efficient approval process by combining consideration of energy conservation goals along with the utility programs to achieve them rather than having separate approvals.
Commissioners last year directed staff to propose modernizing its conservation goal-setting rules after a year earlier rejecting a staff recommendation to set those goals at zero for some utilities as they requested.
The agency challenge: But advocates said the agency staff rewrite proposed in December fails to change the screening methods used by utilities to eliminate programs that are considered too costly for utility customers who do not participate. They said stronger energy conservation programs save utility customers money, reduce pollution from power plants by reducing energy use and create jobs for installing energy efficient measures, such as attic insulation in homes.
Several of them represented groups that have called on utilities to stop electricity disconnections during the coronavirus pandemic. The advocates and some utility customers said stronger conservation programs could prevent low-income residents from falling behind on their utility bills.
"As we know — all of us in Florida — summers are brutal," said Ruth Valle, an Florida Power & Light Co. customer in Miami-Dade County. "They are brutal to our health and also they are also brutal to our pocketbooks — to my pocketbook."
Patty Christensen, a lawyer with the Office of Public Counsel, said the OPC is not against the proposed rule rewrite if the scope is broadened to address the screening process for conservation programs.
"If we don't address that, we will just create additional problems going forward with the changes staff is proposing," she said.
Lawyers representing Florida Power & Light Co. and Tampa Electric Co. said they supported staff's efforts to create a more efficient and transparent goal-setting process. They, along with lawyers for other utilities, said they would provide additional comments in writing.
What's next? Post-workshop comments are due Feb. 15.