Regional Renewable Choice program

The Regional Renewable Choice program at PG&E is a result of Senate Bill 43, which was signed into law on September 28, 2013 by Governor Jerry Brown. This bill enacted the Green Tariff Shared Renewables (GTSR) program, a 600-megawatt statewide program that allows participating utilities' customers— including local governments, businesses, schools, homeowners, municipal customers and renters—to meet up to 100 percent of their energy usage with generation from eligible renewable energy resources. We offer two structures within the Green Tariff Shared Renewables program:

1. Regional Renewable Choice
2. PG&E's Solar Choice

To learn more visit Regional Renewable Choice. If you are a renewable developer please visit PG&E's Solar Choice Program to learn more.

The California Public Utilities Commission has ruled that it is essential that participants in the Regional Renewable Choice Program be protected and that utility customers do not bear the cost of any securities litigation associated with a securities claim related to a Regional Renewable Choice project. Therefore, the Commission requires that prior to PG&E's acceptance of any Regional Renewable project that contains a customer-developer contract, the developer must include a credible and certified securities opinion that the Regional Renewable developer and project comply with securities law, and that PG&E and its customers are not at risk for securities claims associated with the Regional Renewable project. Accordingly, PG&E makes no representation or warranty regarding whether a Regional Renewable Choice project or its developer are in compliance with securities law, and customers and participants in Regional Renewable Projects are solely responsible for ensuring that they and the Regional Renewable project developer are in compliance with all securities laws. 

The Regional Renewable Choice program allows customers to subscribe to renewable energy from specific newly developed generation projects sized from 0.5 to 20 MW from which PG&E procures energy within our service territory. 

The transaction structure of the Regional Renewable Choice program has three main components:

Customer-Developer Agreement

Customers have the opportunity to contract directly with a developer on a specific renewables project and subscribe to a portion of the project's output corresponding to all or a portion of the customer's energy needs. The developer and eligible customers are free to make any financial arrangement that they wish and sign a Customer-Development Agreement (CDA).

Customer Energy Statement Credit

The customer will receive a credit on their PG&E energy statement based on the calendar month output of their subscription to the project. View the E-ECR rate schedule. The credit will not reflect the charges between the developer and customer.

Power Purchase Agreement

Developers sign a Renewable Auction Mechanism (RAM) Power Purchase Agreement and Enhanced Community Renewables rider (pending California Public Utilities Commission approval) with PG&E. PG&E pays the developer for the unsubscribed energy only (energy associated with project capacity not subscribed to by customers).

There are four main areas of program-specific requirements that developers must meet:

1. Green-e Energy
2. Marketing materials
3. Community interest
4. Customer-Developer Agreement

What is Green-e Energy?

Under Senate Bill 43, the Regional Renewable Choice program is required to be Green-e Energy-certified, as administered by the nonprofit Center for Resource Solutions. Green-e Energy is North America's leading voluntary certification program for renewable energy. Since 1997, Green-e Energy has certified renewable energy that meets environmental and consumer protection standards that it developed in conjunction with leading environmental, energy and policy organizations. Green-e Energy requires that sellers of certified renewable energy disclose clear and useful information to potential customers, allowing consumers to make informed choices. Green-e Energy certification provides consumers with assurance that the product sold under Regional Renewable Choice meets the Green-e Energy national standard, is not double counted and is marketed in a clear and accurate way for customers. The Regional Renewable Choice program has achieved Green-e Energy certification.

Under the California Enhanced Community Renewables program, renewable energy project developers take on the responsibility of marketing their projects directly to customers and, as such, agree to comply with Green-e Energy environmental and consumer protection standards. This compliance includes following Green-e Energy guidelines on all product marketing and having an obligation to provide the end-use customer with accurate and sufficient disclosures regarding the projects. For more information on Green-e Energy developer requirements under Senate Bill 43, please visit Green-e Energy's California Enhanced Community Renewables Information for Developers and Generators.

Summary of the Green-e Energy developer requirements:

• Creation of a webpage that provides certain assurances, connection to a live person to answer questions and links to the utility providing the connection and to Green-e Energy. Detailed requirements can be found starting on page 1 of Green-e Energy's developer requirements (PDF).
• Developing and sending a welcome packet to customers within 60 days of a signed Customer-Developer Agreement. Detailed requirements can be found starting on page 11 of Green-e Energy's developer requirements (PDF).
• Submittal of a tracking system attestation and host attestations (if applicable). Detailed requirements can be found on page 13 of Green-e Energy's developer requirements (PDF).

Note: Many of the Green-e Energy requirements must be met prior to marketing to customers—see below.

What are the marketing requirements for Regional Renewable Choice projects?

The California Public Utility Commission's final GTSR Decision (PDF) (15-01-051) states that PG&E must review all developer marketing materials before they are used to market to customers.

All developer marketing materials must comply with the following:

• Green-e Energy Developer Requirements (PDF)
• The California Public Utility Commission's Community Choice Aggregation Code of Conduct, which includes marketing and outreach requirements relative to Community Choice Aggregation.
• Must be truthful, accurate and not false or misleading.

Developers must include a disclaimer statement provided by PG&E on all marketing materials. Developers must also obtain permission from PG&E in order to use the logo for any purpose. Contact solarchoicemarketing@pge.com for the PG&E Disclaimer Statement and Logo Usage Guidelines.

To start the procurement process described below, developers must submit a complete marketing review packet containing the following:

• All marketing materials the Developer intends to use to market to customers. These materials must align with the requirements of either Marketing Phase One: Community Interest or Marketing Phase Two: Customer Enrollment as provided in the Green-e Energy Developer Requirements. 
• Marketing Compliance Attestation (PDF)
• A summary of all claims and factual statements made in marketing materials.

The process for submitting a marketing review packet to PG&E for review is provided in Stage 1 Submit Marketing Materials of the Developer Bid Submittal process, below.

It is important to note that any customer-facing marketing materials created after the initial marketing review and approval must also be submitted and approved prior to use. The ongoing submission of marketing materials will follow the same process outlined in Stage 1, below.

What are the community interest requirements for Regional Renewable Choice projects?

Resolution E-5028 (PDF) was issued in 2019 and includes modifications on some of the community interest requirements that were discussed in the California Public Utility Commission's final GTSR Decision (PDF) and D.16-05-006 which states that in order for a developer to qualify for a Power Purchase Agreement, there must be sufficient demonstration of community interest for Regional Renewable Choice projects. Developers must demonstrate community interest for Regional Renewable Choice projects and must be achieved prior to the start of construction. The following are some the requirements that must be met as a developer:

1. Documentation that community members have committed to enroll in 30 percent of the project's capacity or documentation that community members have provided expressions of interest in the project sufficient to reach 51 percent of the project's capacity 
2. Demonstration that 1/6th (by load) of the demonstrated community interest in the project is from residential subscribers, at the time of commercial operation.

For the purpose of demonstrating community interest, community members/subscribers must be located within the same municipality or county or within ten miles of the project's address.  Community members/subscribers must also meet the other customer eligibility criteria as defined in E-ECR (PDF).

Developers must inform customers committing to enroll of an estimated price, when the project is expected to come online and a contract term. An expression of interest does not require disclosure of these elements. Both the commitment to enroll and expression of interest are managed through a web-based platform. Once marketing materials are submitted by the developer and are approved, PG&E will provide login credentials to the developer who would then provide a link to interested customers. Interested customers will use their PG&E log-in credentials to access the portal. Once verified, customers will be able to express interest or commit to enroll in the specified project. The portal will save the information and will automatically track progress towards community interest requirements.

Developers may not market to customers, even for the purpose of obtaining community interest until marketing materials have been approved.

What is a Customer-Developer Agreement?

The California Public Utility Commission's final GTSR Decision (PDF) (15-01-051) states that the developer and customer are likely to have an agreement separate from the utility in which they take on various obligations. This agreement is called a Customer Developer Agreement and both parties are "free to design their own transaction structure to maximize their goals and ensure that projects are financeable."

There are, however, some important obligations that must be met when designing Customer Developer Agreements:

1. Developers must take affirmative steps to protect customers and are required to provide representations, warranties and indemnifications sufficient to protect PG&E and PG&E shareholders in the event of a dispute between the developer and the customer.
2. Developers must ensure that customer eligibility as well as the subscription terms defined in the Customer-Developer Agreement, meet the requirements as specified in E-ECR (PDF). For example, the customer's subscription must be within the equivalent of 25-120 percent of their annual usage.

The Customer-Developer Agreement is not part of the marketing review and approval process and PG&E will only require select information related to the customer's subscription be made available to PG&E for the necessary purpose of determining the appropriate credit to apply to participating customer's bills.

Developers are not permitted to sell energy directly to the customer.

The most recent/current RRC RFO is posted on http://www.pge.com/rfo.  The Regional Renewable Choice ("RRC") RFO website gives information on:

• Program Requirements for Developers
• Proposed Schedule
• Solicitation Materials (available on Power Advocate)
• Power Advocate Registration
• Participants' Webinar
• Interconnection to the electric grid and application processes