Stevenson, Garrett
Subject:FW: MSC message Agenda #1
From: David Cutter < >
Sent: Tuesday, October 24, 2023 12:06 PM
To: Sabha, Tamer <[email protected]>
Subject: MSC message Agenda #1
Dear Councilmembers,
I am a Pasadena property owner and business owner. I'm chairperson of the EAC and I also was a member of PWP's Stakeholder Technical Advisory Group since Dec of 2022.
I think the Council needs to recreate the Utilities Commission to help oversee Pasadena's energy transition to cleaner and more sustainable fuels. I believe that PWP is being genuine about the difficulties involved in achieving 100% carbon free by 2030. I also believe that there's been a lack of willingness to "think outside the box". Public oversight would improve this situation.
As a utility scale enterprise PWP is used to having control over the electricity that comes into Pasadena. I have observed over a year of STAG meetings a lack of promotion for Distributed Energy Resources. That is to say, rooftop solar and other forms. There are other outside the box solutions to the very real bottleneck that PWP staff have been describing. Heat batteries are one example that doesn't even need to be connected to the grid and therefore circumvents the interconnection issue. I believe public oversight will help PWP find these solutions.
Since the dissolution of the former Utilities Commision, public oversight of PWP has dropped off a cliff. Since this is a public utility and we are at a critical moment, the start of a major transition in energy sourcing, we feel it's important to restablish the public oversight that used to exist. Whether you see fit to restablish the Utilities Commission or fold the audit authority into the EAC, I believe that kind of accountability is needed. The more accountability you provide, the faster this energy transition will go.
Thank you
David Cutter
David Cutter
Director
Pasadena Piano Institute
1