MCE Technical Committee Meeting
Friday, November 1, 2024
10:00 a.m.
Public comments may be made in person via the details below. 1125 Tamalpais Avenue, San Rafael, CA 94901 (MCE)
2300 Clayton Road, Suite 1150, Concord, CA 94920 (MCE)
11780 San Pablo Ave., Suite D, El Cerrito, CA 94530
Remote Public Meeting Participation
Video Conference: https://t.ly/QzAmo
Phone: Dial (669)-900-9128, Meeting ID 828 5103 7385, Passcode 142534 Materials related to this agenda are available for physical inspection at MCE’s offices in San Rafael at 1125 Tamalpais Ave., San Rafael, CA 94901, and in Concord at 2300 Clayton Road, Suite 1150, Concord, CA 94920.
DISABLED ACCOMMODATION: If you are a person with a disability who requires an accommodation or an alternative format, please contact MCE at (888) 632-3674 or [email protected] at least 72 hours before the meeting start tie to ensure arrangements are made.
Agenda Page 1 of 2
1. Roll Call/Quorum
2. Board Announcements (Discussion)
3. Public Open Time (Discussion)
4. Report from Chief Executive Officer (Discussion)
5. Consent Calendar (Discussion/Action)
C.1. Approval of the 8.2.24 Meeting Minutes
6. MCE Annual Power Source Disclosure Attestation for 2023 (Discussion/Action)
7. Adjourn
Empowering Our Clean Energy Future
MARIN COUNTY I NAPA COUNTY I UNINCORPORATED CONTRA COSTA COUNTY
UNINCORPORATED SOLANO COUNTY I BENICIA I CONCORD I DANVILLE I EL CERRITO
FAIRFIELD I HERCULES I LAFAYETTE I MARTINEZ I MORAGA I OAKLEY I PINOLE
PITTSBURG I PLEASANT HILL I RICHMOND I SAN PABLO I SAN RAMON I WALNUT CREEK Agenda Page 2 of 2
The Technical Committee may discuss and/or take action on any or all of the items listed on the agenda irrespective of how the items are described.
This Committee may be attended by Board Members who do not serve on this Committee. In the event that a quorum of the entire Board is present, this Committee shall act as a Committee of the Whole. Any item acted upon by the Committee of the Whole will be considered advisory to the Board of Directors and require consideration and action by the Board of Directors at a noticed Board meeting before adoption or approval of the item.
DRAFT
MCE TECHNICAL COMMITTEE MEETING MINUTES
Friday, August 2, 2024
10:00 A.M.
Present: Bruce Ackerman, Alternate, Town of Fairfax
Mark Armstrong, Alternate, City of San Ramon
Alexis Fineman, Town of San Anselmo
John Gioia, Contra Costa County
Eduardo Martinez, City of Richmond
Devin Murphy, City of Pinole, Chair
Absent: Dion Bailey, City of Hercules
Gina Dawson, City of Lafayette
Charles Palmares, City of Vallejo
Gabe Quinto, City of El Cerrito
Katie Rice, County of Marin
Staff
& Others: JB Ackemann, VP of Public Affairs
Jesica Brooks, Lead Board Clerk and Executive Assistant Martin Bond, Senior Business Development Manager
Shuvo Chowdhury, VP of Technology & Analytics
Vidhi Chawla, VP of Power Resources
Darlene Jackson, Board Clerk and Executive Assistant to the CEO Vicken Kasarjian, Chief Operating Officer
Madhuri Kandukuri, Power Analytics Principal Manager
Joseph Kombarakkaran, Senior Product Manager
Caroline Lavenue, Legal Counsel
Tanya Lomas, Internal Operations Coordinator
Alexandra McGee, VP of Strategic Initiatives
Monique McCool, Paralegal
Stephen Mariani, Senior Power Procurement Manager
Catalina Murphy, General Counsel
Jackie Nuñez, Bilingual Communications Manager
Justine Parmelee, VP of Internal Operations
Zae Perrin, VP of Customer Operations
Sol Phua, Customer Programs Specialist
Sabrinna Soldavini, Director of Policy
Enyonam Senyo-Mensah, Office Manager
Daniel Settlemyer, Internal Operations Associate
Karamvir Singh, Director of Analytics, Data Systems
Jenna Tenney, Manager of Communications and Community
Engagement
DRAFT
Jamie Tuckey, Chief Customer Officer
Dawn Weisz, Chief Executive Officer
1. Roll Call
Chair Murphy called the regular Technical Committee meeting to order at 10:00 a.m. with quorum established by roll call.
2. Board Announcements (Discussion)
Comments were made by Director Gioia.
3. Public Open Time (Discussion)
Chair Murphy opened the public comment period, and comments were made by members of the public Ken Strong.
4. Report from Chief Executive Officer (Discussion)
CEO Dawn Weisz introduced this item and addressed questions from Committee members.
5. Consent Calendar (Discussion/Action)
C.1 Approval of 6.7.24 Meeting Minutes
C.2 Proposed Fifth Amendment to Master Services Agreement with R Systems International Limited
Chair Murphy opened the public comment period and there were no comments.
6. PG&E Transfer of Diablo Canyon GHG-Free Attributes (Discussion/Action) Vidhi Chawla, VP of Power Resources, presented this item and addressed questions from Committee members.
Chair Murphy opened the public comment period, and comments were made by members of the public Ken Strong, Dan Segedin, Howdy Goudey, Dan See, and Kerry Hillis.
Chair Murphy departed the meeting, and Director Martinez stepped in as the acting chair.
Action: It was M/S/C (Ackerman/Fineman) to make a recommendation to the Board of Directors to accept the nuclear allocation. Motion Action: It was M/S/C (Martinez/Ackerman) to approve Consent Calendar item C.1 and C.2. Motion carried by unanimous roll call vote. (Absent:
Directors Bailey, Dawson, Quinto, and Rice).
DRAFT
carried by unanimous roll call vote. (Absent: Directors Bailey, Dawson, Quinto, and Rice).
7. Responsible Biomass Electricity Development Principals Update (Discussion)
Alexandra McGee, VP of Strategic Initiatives, presented this item and addressed questions from Committee members.
Acting Chair Martinez opened the public comment period, and comments were made by member of the public, Julia Levin.
Action: No action required.
8. Committee & Staff Matters (Discussion)
Comments were made by CEO, Dawn Weisz.
9. Adjournment
Chair Martinez adjourned the meeting at 12:11 p.m. to the next scheduled Technical Committee Meeting on September 6, 2024.
___________________________________________
Devin Murphy, Chair
Attest:
___________________________________________
Dawn Weisz, Secretary
November 1, 2024
TO: MCE Technical Committee
FROM: VIDHI CHAWLA, VICE PRESIDENT OF POWER RESOURCES
RE: MCE Annual Power Source Disclosure Attestation for 2023 (Agenda Item #6)
Dear Technical Committee Members:
Summary:
California Public Utilities Code requires all retail sellers of electric energy, including MCE, to disclose “accurate, reliable, and simple-to-understand information on the sources of energy, and the associated emissions of greenhouse gasses, that are used to provide electric services.” 1 Applicable regulations direct retail sellers to provide such communications to customers following each year of operation. The format for this communication, named the Power Content Label (PCL) by the California Energy Commission (CEC), is highly prescriptive, offering little flexibility to retail sellers when presenting such information to customers. Like the presentation of information on a nutritional label, the PCL informs retail electricity customers of the power sources that were procured to serve their electric energy needs. Prior to distributing the PCL to its customers, MCE annually submits reports to the CEC detailing specified-source power purchases for each retail service offering that was made available during the previous year. These annual reports and the PCL are required elements of California’s Power Source Disclosure Program (PSD Program); information reflected in each annual report is contributory to the PCL (with the power supply breakout reflected in each annual report inserted in MCE’s PCL template).
Information presented in the PCL includes the proportionate share of total energy supply attributable to various resource types, including both renewable and conventional fuel sources. If a retail seller meets a certain percentage of its resource needs from unspecified resources/purchases, the report must identify such purchases as “unspecified sources of power.” Certain of MCE’s power supply agreements reflect the delivery of unspecified/market power to satisfy a portion of MCE’s energy requirements. These purchases, which have diminished over time consistent with MCE’s adopted integrated resource planning objectives, serve to promote budgetary certainty and rate stability and have been appropriately identified as “unspecified sources of power” in MCE’s PCL.
Note that MCE’s unspecified power purchases have significantly decreased in recent years, amounting to less than 0.1% of total purchases during the 2023 reporting year. 1 California Public Utilities Code Section 398.1(b)
Empowering Our Clean Energy Future
CONTRA COSTA I MARIN I NAPA I SOLANO
During the 2023 calendar year, MCE successfully delivered a substantial portion of its electric energy supply from various renewable energy sources, including wind, solar, geothermal, hydroelectricity, biomass and landfill gas-to-energy. For Light Green customers, the percentage of supply attributable to renewable energy sources was 60 percent of the total (with nearly 100 percent of total Light Green energy purchases sourced from zero- or low-carbon sources) and the greenhouse gas emissions intensity was the lowest in MCE’s history at 4 lbs. CO2e/MWh (a 91% reduction from 2022). Note that the reflection of 0.2% nuclear supply within the Light Green portfolio relates to a relatively new PSD reporting convention (incorporated following the implementation of Assembly Bill 1110) that separates purchases from Asset Controlling Suppliers by resource type. MCE made no specified nuclear purchases in 2023, and the reflection of such purchases simply relates to residual amounts of nuclear power that were included in purchases from Asset Controlling Suppliers located in the Pacific Northwest – nearly all Asset Controlling Supply is comprised of hydroelectricity with small amounts of renewable, natural gas, nuclear and system power used for portfolio balancing. For the Deep Green, Local Sol and Green Access retail service offerings, CEC-certified renewable resources were the exclusive sources of energy procured to serve participating customers. The following table reflects MCE’s 2023 PCL, presented in the CEC’s required format.
Consistent with applicable regulations, MCE will complete requisite customer communications following your Committee’s approval of pertinent information to be included in the 2023 PCL.
Please note that there have been multiple power source reporting deadline delays related to the 2023 calendar year. Such delays have stemmed from ongoing issues with the Western Renewable Energy Generation Information System, also known as WREGIS, which implemented a platform upgrade about two years ago. Since that time, there have been several technical difficulties that have affected timely REC creation and transfer, electronic tag matching and other important system 4 1000
800
600
400
200
0 373 Geotnermal 1.0% 0.0% 00% 0.0%
Eligible Hydroelectric 7.7% 0.0% 0 0% 0.0%
MCE u g,1 Green Power Mix Solar 33.3% 50.0% 1000% 100.0% Wind 15.3% 50.0% 00% 0.0%
Deep Green Power MIX Coal 0.0% 0.0% 0.0% 0.0%
Large Hydroelectric 40.1% 0.0% 0.0% 0.0%
2023 MCE Local Sol Power Mix Natural Gas 0.0% 0.0% 0.0% 0.0% Green Access Power MIX Nuclear 0.2% 0.0% 0.0% 0.0%
Other 0.0% 0.0% 0.0% 0.0%
2023 CA Util~y Average Unspecified Power' 0.1% 0.0% 0.0% 0.0% TOTAL 100.0% 100.0% 100.0% 100.0%
Percentage of Retail Sales Covered by Retired Unbundled RECs3 : 2% 0% 0%
1 The eligible renewable percentage above does not reflect RPS compliance, which is determined using a different methodology. 2Unspecified power is electricity that has been purchased through open market transactions and is not traceable to a specific generation source. 0%
4.8%
1.8%
17.0%
11.2%
1.8%
11.7%
36.6%
9.3%
0.1%
3.7%
100.0%
3Renewable energy credits (RECs) are tracking Instruments Issued for renewable generation. Unbundled renewable energy credits (RECs) represent renewable generation that was not delivered to serve retail sales. Unbundled RECs are not reflected in the power mix or GHG emissions Intensities above.
For specific infonnation about this electricity portfolio, contact:
For general information about the Power Content Label, visit:
MCE
(888) 632-3674
https://www.energy.ca.gov/programs•and•topics/programs/power•source-disclosure• ro ram
features. With these reporting delays in mind, the CEC recently advised California retail sellers that the 2023 PCL distribution deadline will be pushed to January 31, 2025 – with this guidance, the CEC also encouraged retail sellers to distributed 2023 PCLs during the 2024 calendar year, if possible.
Customers receiving 2023 PCL communications will include all those served by MCE during the 2023 calendar year. Such customers will be provided with a copy of the PCL no later than January 31, 2025, consistent with CEC guidance.
While preparing MCE’s 2023 annual PSD reports and PCL, staff performed a detailed review of all power purchases completed for the 2023 calendar year. This review included an inventory of all renewable energy credit transfers within MCE’s Western Renewable Energy Generation Information System (WREGIS) account, related contract documents and pertinent transaction records associated with other specified energy purchases. Based on staff’s review of available data, the information presented in the annual reports and PCL was determined to be accurate.
To fulfill its obligations under the PSD Program, MCE must also provide the CEC with an attestation of its Governing Board regarding the accuracy of information included in its PSD reports and PCL for the 2023 operating year. MCE’s Technical Committee has delegated authority from the Governing Board to provide such attestation; the CEC has confirmed that such delegated authority is acceptable, subject to pertinent documentation of the Governing Board’s direction in this regard.
With regard to this internally administered attestation process, applicable regulations state2 :
A retail supplier that is a public agency providing electric services is not required to comply with the provisions of subdivision (a)(1) if the board of directors of the public agency submits to the Energy Commission an attestation of the veracity of each annual report and power content label for the previous year.
Evidence of MCE’s attestation must be provided to the CEC no later than January 31, 2025.
In consideration of MCE’s internal review and applicable regulations, staff requests that your Committee accept this determination of informational accuracy and, based on this staff-level determination and related recommendation, attest to the accuracy of information included in MCE’s 2023 Power Source Disclosure reports and PCL. Should your Committee endorse staff’s recommendation, a copy of: 1) this staff report; 2) meeting minutes for today’s Technical Committee Meeting; and 3) a copy of MCE’s completed 2023 PCL template (in both Excel and PDF formats) will be forwarded to the CEC, thereby completing MCE’s obligations under the PSD Program for the 2023 calendar year.
Fiscal Impacts:
Other than the typical cost of producing and distributing Power Content Labels to MCE customers, there are no expected fiscal impacts.
2 Note that Section 1394.2.(a)(1), as referenced in the excerpt from applicable PSD regulations, refers to the completion of annual independent audits.
Recommendation:
Based on staff’s review of the power purchases supporting MCE’s various retail supply portfolios in 2023, it is recommended that the Technical Committee endorse the accuracy of information presented in MCE’s 2023 PSD reports for Light Green, Deep Green, Local Sol and Green Access service as well as the related PCL reflecting such products.