City Council Memorandum
TO: HONORABLE MAYOR AND CITY COUNCIL DATE: FEBRUARY 8, 2022 FROM: PUBLIC UTILITIES DEPARTMENT WARDS: ALL
SUBJECT: AMENDED AND RESTATED PROGRAM ORDER OF MASTER INTER-UTILITY AGREEMENT WITH SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA GAS COMPANY FOR ENERGY EFFICIENCY, RESOURCE SAVINGS, AND RELATED ACTIVITIES IN THE AMOUNT OF $500,000 FOR FISCAL YEARS 2021/22 AND 2022/2023 ISSUE:
Approve the Amended and Restated Program Order of the Master Inter-Utility Agreement between Southern California Gas Company and City of Riverside Public Utilities for Energy Efficiency, Resource Savings, and Related Activities in the amount of $500,000 for Fiscal Year 2021/22 through Fiscal Year 2022/23.
RECOMMENDATIONS:
That the City Council:
Approve the Amended and Restated Program Order of the Master Inter-Utility Agreement with Southern California Gas Company in the amount of $500,000 for Fiscal Year 2021/22 through Fiscal Year 2022/23; and Authorize the City Manager, or designee, to execute the Program Order with Southern California Gas Company including the ability to make any minor, non-substantiative changes without exceeding the approved program budget.
BOARD RECOMMENDATION:
On Monday, January 24, 2022, the Board of Public Utilities will hear this item for consideration to recommend the approval of the Amended and Restated Program Order with Southern California Gas Company in the amount of $500,000. If the Board of Public Utilities approves to forward this item to the City Council, we respectfully request the City Council consider the item at the Tuesday, February 8, 2022 meeting.
BACKGROUND:
Riverside Public Utilities (RPU) is the primary energy and water service provider in the City of Riverside, while Southern California Gas Company (SoCal Gas) provides natural gas throughout the City. In January 2012, RPU and SoCal Gas entered into an Inter-Utility Agreement to create the Energy Savings Assistance Program (ESAP), an energy and gas efficiency program for qualifying low-income customers. ESAP provides both electric and gas efficiency measures at no-cost to the customers to assist in lowering their monthly utility bills, while making their home more energy efficient.
The Agreement with SoCal Gas allowed RPU to develop a cost-effective program to weatherize low-income homes at a significantly lower cost to the utility by utilizing economies of scale and combining interests with another utility service provider within the City. As part of SoCal Gas ESAP, local contractors provide the direct installation of both attic and wall insulation, weather-stripping and caulking to lower heating and cooling costs, as well as interior water saving fixtures such as faucet aerators and showerheads. RPU supplements SoCal Gas measures in a co-branded partnership to provide electric efficiency measures such as new energy-efficient LED lighting, air-conditioning tune-ups, and the installation of new Energy Star-rated refrigerators and the recycling of old refrigerators. Through this partnership, RPU can utilize SoCal Gas energy savings data collection methods and reporting tools to account for energy savings associated with the program. Additionally, RPU can collect SoCal Gas electric and water savings that overlay both gas and electric savings, while leveraging the cost of improvement.
Eligibility for the ESAP no-cost energy efficient home improvement program is based on income and household size. Households may be eligible based on participation in certain public assistance programs such as RPU’s Sharing Households Assist Riverside’s Energy (SHARE) Program, which assists income-qualified, residential customers with their electric utility bills and deposits. To further support qualifying customers, and provide direct energy savings and education, RPU prioritizes SHARE participants to receive program benefits from both RPU and SoCal Gas.
On May 22, 2018, the Riverside City Council approved a five-year rate plan for RPU. As part of that effort, RPU increased outreach efforts and explored ways to better serve low-income and fixed income customers to reduce the impact of the rate plan. To increase support to these communities, RPU enhanced the SHARE program eligibility requirements by raising the income eligibility requirement from 150% to 200% of the Federal poverty level. The expanded eligibility requirements aligned the SHARE program with other public assistance programs, including SoCal Gas low-income qualifications. This program alignment provides a streamlined approach to program eligibility and significantly increases program participation.
DISCUSSION:
The Amended and Restated Program Order of the Master Inter-Utility Agreement between So Cal Gas and RPU include enhanced energy efficiency measures to provide improved direct energy savings to program participants. These enhanced measures included LED lighting retrofits, air conditioning tune-ups, HVAC Fan Control Switches and Smart Power Strips. Additional measures have been added to enhance the program, these include ECM HVAC Motors, Smart Programmable Thermostats and Computer Smart Power Strips. These efficiency measures were specifically chosen to increase health, safety, and affordability outcomes.
During Fiscal Year 2018/19, the enhanced ESAP program has served 760 homes, saving 1,551,657 kWh, with a total program expenditure of $423,967 or $0.27 per kWh saved.
During Fiscal Year 2019/20, the enhanced ESAP program saw increased participation and served 1,286 homes, saving 2,120,768 kWh, with a total program expenditure of $591,164 or $0.28 per kWh saved.
On May 5, 2020 the City Council approved to authorize the City Manager, or designee, to make adjustments to or temporarily suspend any or all programs funded with Public Benefit Funds except for the Emergency Recovery Assistance Program (ERAP) and Sharing Households Assist Riverside’s Energy (SHARE) programs as needed to assist low-income residential electric customers that have been adversely financially impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. The ESAP program was suspended since it requires a technician to enter customers’ homes to conduct and energy assessment and directly install energy efficient measures. SoCal Gas suspended the ESAP program March 19, 2020 and the program resumed June 1, 2020 and included COVID-19 safety protocols when the technician enters a customer home and when installing energy efficient measures.
STRATEGIC PLAN ALIGNMENT:
The ESAP program contributes to Strategic Priority No. 4 Environmental Stewardship and Goal 4.4 - Implement measures and educate the community to responsibly manage goods, products and services throughout their life to achieve waste reduction.
The item aligns with each of the five Cross-Cutting Threads as follows:
Community Trust – The ESAP program will serve all our qualifying customers, providing high quality programs, where the key focus is on energy efficiency and water conservation, which in turn will benefit the wider community.
Equity – ESAP ensures every member of the community has equal access to share the benefits of the energy efficiency and water conservation measures the program offers. This program further extends into the ethos of ensuring that every member of the community can participate in holistic community progress.
Fiscal Responsibility – ESAP is a cost-effective program for low-income customers. The program parameters ensure that quality public services are accessible across the community. This program is also provided in collaboration with SoCal Gas and requires that there is collective and robust scrutiny over public fund management Innovation – The enhanced measures of the ESAP program aligns with the community’s changing needs and will ensure that the City is helping to provide sector-leading technologies to our customers in response to energy efficiency and water conservation requirements.
Sustainability & Resiliency – ESAP is committed to meeting the energy efficiency needs of our low-income customers and those of the City, by providing direct install of measures that will provide future savings and realize the full potential of energy savings and sustainability measures our customers can contribute to.
FISCAL IMPACT:
The total fiscal impact is $500,000. Sufficient funds are available in the Electric Public Benefit Programs Fund, Energy Savings Assistance Program Account No. 6020100-456083.
Prepared by: Todd M. Corbin, Utilities General Manager
Certified as to
availability of funds: Edward Enriquez, Chief Financial Officer/City Treasurer Approved by: Kris Martinez, Assistant City Manager
Approved as to form: Phaedra A. Norton, City Attorney
Attachments:
Amended and Restated Program Order of the Master Inter-Utility Agreement between Southern California Gas Company and City of Riverside Public Utilities Synergy COVID-19 Prevention and Compliance Plan
Synergy COVID-19 Prevention and Compliance Plan Presentation Presentation
Master Inter-Utility Agreement with So Cal Gas Co. ● Page 2