California Code of Regulations
Title 20 - Public Utilities and Energy
Division 2 - State Energy Resources Conservation and Development Commission
Chapter 4 - Energy Conservation
Article 5 - Load Management Standards
Section 1625 - Non-Residential Load Management Standard

Universal Citation: 20 CA Code of Regs 1625

Current through Register 2024 Notice Reg. No. 38, September 20, 2024

(a) Program Goals. The utility's Nonresidential Load Management program shall be designed to achieve, by 1985, a twenty (20) percent improvement in energy efficiency in the following segments of the nonresidential sector and in the following manner:

(1) Large Commercial: The utility shall make its best good faith efforts to conduct energy conservation surveys of 100 percent of its large commercial customers within 36 months after the Commission has approved the utility's Plan for Large Commercial Customers and the utility's rate-approving body has approved a method for recovering the costs of the program.

(2) Small Commercial: Within 24 months after the Commission approves a utility's Plan for Small Commercial Customers, the utility shall have made its best good faith efforts to contact 100 percent of its small commercial customers individually or through trade and community organizations. The utility shall not be required to conduct energy conservation surveys of all such customers.

(b) Plans for Commercial Customers. No later than one year after this standard becomes effective, the utility shall submit an Energy Conservation Plan for Small Commercial Customers, and, no later than six months after this standard becomes effective, the utility shall submit an Energy Conservation Plan for Large Commercial Customers. In these plans, the utility shall describe in detail how it intends to implement commercial load management programs, shall provide a schedule for implementation of these programs, and shall indicate how it intends to report on the success of these programs. Review and approval of these Plans shall be carried out in accordance with the provisions of Section 1621(d). The utility shall implement its Plans in accordance with the schedules contained in the Plans, as soon as the Commission has approved the plans and the rate-approving body has approved a method for recovering the costs of these programs.

(1) Plan for Large Commercial Customers. With the exception of paragraphs (iv), (v) and (vi), which are optional, the plan shall contain all of the elements described below. It shall also contain the service area inventory, the service area energy index and a priority sequence, or it shall contain an alternative method for determining the order in which the utility will conduct Energy Conservation Surveys. Any such alternative method shall be described in detail in the Plan and shall indicate how either the least energy-efficient customers or the customers with the greatest energy-saving potential are surveyed first.
(i) Objectives--The plan shall describe, in detail, the utility's commercial load management program. It shall also include an assessment of the impact of the program on system reliability, need for new capacity, fuel efficiency, and overall costs.

(ii) Organization--The plan shall describe how the utility will organize and manage the commercial load management program. It shall include organization charts, qualifications for each position and the reporting relationship of the effort to the President or General Manager of the utility. The plan shall describe how the utility intends to recruit and hire the personnel needed to staff the proposed organization, and how the utility intends to coordinate its survey work with outside energy management consultants.

(iii) Schedule and Budget--The plan shall include a detailed schedule for each of the program elements. The schedule shall indicate each task required to complete each element, the level of effort assigned to each task, and the beginning and ending dates of each task. The plan shall include the utility's detailed budget for carrying out all elements of the commercial load management program. It shall display dollars budgeted over time, by task, for personnel, equipment, and outside contractors.

(iv) Service Area Inventory--A service area inventory shall provide data on conditioned space, total energy use for all forms of energy supplied by the utility, building type, and SIC code. For each building, the inventory shall identify the area, in square feet, of conditioned space. For each building, the inventory shall identify annual total energy use, in British thermal units (at gross thermal value) per square foot of conditioned space, for all forms of energy which the utility provides the customer. The inventory shall identify each building according to the appropriate Standard Industrial Classification Groups and by building type.

(v) Service Area Energy Index--Using the data obtained in the service area inventory, the utility will calculate the service area energy index for each Standard Industrial Classification Group and building type. This index is the median annual total energy use for buildings of a given Standard Industrial Classification Group or building type.

(vi) Priority Sequence--The utility shall determine the order in which it will conduct Energy Conservation Surveys. It shall utilize a method that considers how efficiently a customer uses energy, or it shall multiply each large commercial customer's conditioned space (in square feet) by the number of Btu's per square foot (if any) by which the customer exceeds their service area energy index. The utility shall then rank, in descending order of excess, those customers which exceed the index. It shall rank customers whose energy use does not exceed the index in descending order of their gross energy use. This ranking establishes the priority sequence.

(vii) Public Education--The plan shall describe how the utility expects to inform commercial customers about the commercial load management program.

(viii) Program Operations--The plan shall describe how the utility intends to carry out the day-to-day operations of the commercial program in accordance with (d) and (e) below. It shall describe how the utility intends to make arrangements with commercial customers to make surveys.

(ix) Program Evaluation and Reporting--The plan shall describe how the utility intends to evaluate, on an ongoing basis, the quality and performance of each element of the commercial load management program. It shall describe how evaluations will be made and the results fed back into each element to improve the program on a regular basis. The plan shall also describe how the utility intends to report progress on implementing the commercial load management program to the Commission. It shall indicate how the Commission will be notified, in a timely manner, of unexpected delays or difficulties. The plan shall include an outline of the reporting formats that the utility intends to use for its annual reports.

(x) Other Information--The plan shall include any other information that the utility deems appropriate for Commission consideration in relation to the commercial load management program.

(2) Plan for Small Commercial Customers. The plan shall contain elements (i), (ii), (iii), (vii), (viii), (ix), and (x) referred to in Subsection (b)(1) above.

(c) Plan for Industrial Customers. The utility may, at its option, expand its commercial load management program to include its industrial customers. If it chooses to do this, the utility shall submit a Plan for Industrial Customers. This plan shall contain the utility's assessment of the potential energy and capacity savings in the industrial sector of its service area on an industry-by-industry basis. This plan shall also describe the steps which the utility will take, by means of surveys or other programs, to achieve these savings, and the time frame in which these steps would be carried out. To the extent applicable, this plan shall contain information similar to that required by elements (i), (ii), (iii), (vii), (viii), (ix), and (x) referred to in subsection (b)(1) above. The Commission shall review any Plan for Industrial Customers to determine whether the proposals set forth in that plan will be cost-effective in achieving the estimated energy and/or capacity savings. If the Commission determines that the plan would be cost-effective to implement, it shall approve the plan.

(d) Energy Conservation Surveys for Large Commercial Customers. The utility or its contractor shall conduct Energy Conservation Surveys for large commercial customers cooperating in the program in descending order of priority sequence. The utility shall begin the surveys as soon as the Commission has approved its Plan for such customers and the utility's rate-approving body has approved a method for recovering the costs of the program. It shall complete these surveys within 36 months after it begins the surveys.

Each Survey shall review the end-uses of electricity at a specific site. It shall identify ways by which the customer can reduce both their total electricity use and their electricity demand during the peak period. Each survey shall as a minimum consider lighting, hot water, heating-ventilating, and cooling-ventilating.

(e) Survey Report. Within 30 days after it has completed an Energy Conservation Survey, the utility or its contractor shall provide the customer with a written report.

This report shall recommend ways in which the customer can shift loads to non-peak hours and save energy, and shall estimate how much money the customer would save should they implement the recommendations. The report shall indicate how the customer might take part in existing or potential utility-conducted load cycling programs, and how they may use solar energy techniques, cogeneration, or other load shifting or load diminishing measures. The report shall also show where further study by other experts might help them save still more energy and money.

The utility will retain a copy of the report, related papers and forms. It will keep these records available for review by the Executive Director, pursuant to Section 1621(e). The Executive Director shall conduct an annual review of quality of utility Surveys.

(f) Resurveys. Each year, the utility or its contractor shall recalculate annual total energy use for any large commercial customer surveyed during the previous year. It shall reenter into its priority sequence those customers which still exceed their service area energy index or it shall determine the order for resurveying its customers in accordance with an approved alternative method. In proper priority sequence, it shall resurvey such customers.

(g) Annual Report. On March 31 of each year, the utility shall submit to the Executive Director its annual report on Energy Conservation Surveys for customers affected by this section covering the previous calendar year. The Executive Director shall prescribe the format for these reports. In its first annual report, the utility shall describe how it initiated the surveys.

In each subsequent report, the utility shall provide the service area inventory or an update thereof, and the service area energy index and the priority sequence or their equivalent based on an approved alternative method. In addition, the report shall include, but need not be limited to, the following:

Number of customers surveyed;

Total energy used by the surveyed customers by Standard Industrial Classification Group and by building type in the 12 months covered by the annual report and 12 months prior to the period of the annual report;

Total kilowatt-hour, kilowatt demand, and coincident kilowatt demand by Standard Industrial Classification Group and by building type of the surveyed customers in the 12 months covered by the annual report and 12 months prior to the period of the annual report;

Net conditioned space of the surveyed customers at the time of the survey and 12 months prior to the survey; and

Expense data for all personnel, overhead, equipment and other items attributed to the survey program.

Each annual report shall describe the status of the utility's program for small commercial customers, and of any optional approved program for industrial customers.

Each annual report shall also indicate the impact of each program covered by this section on the utility's load duration curve for the previous 12 months.

(h) Compliance. The utility will be in compliance with this standard if:

(1) It submits all plans and reports required by this section in a timely manner;

(2) Within 36 months after the Commission has approved the utility's Plan for Large Commercial Customers and the rate-approving body has approved a method for recovering the costs of the program, the utility shall have made its best good faith efforts to conduct energy conservation surveys of 100 percent of its large commercial customers; and

(3) Within 24 months after the Commission has approved the utility's Plan for Small Commercial Customers and the rate-approving body has approved a method for recovering the costs of the program, the utility shall have made its best good faith efforts to contact 100 percent of its small commercial customers individually or through trade and community organizations.

1. Amendment of subsections (a)-(c) filed 8-13-82; effective thirtieth day thereafter (Register 82, No. 33).
2. Amendment of subsection (g) filed 9-14-82; effective upon filing pursuant to Government Code Section 11346.2(d) (Register 82, No. 37).
3. Change without regulatory effect amending subsections (b)(1)(vi) and (d)-(e) filed 8-24-2022 pursuant to section 100, title 1, California Code of Regulations (Register 2022, No. 34).

Note: Authority cited: Sections 25213 and 25218(e), Public Resources Code. Reference: Sections 25403.5 and 25406, Public Resources Code.

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