Proposed Decision Authorizes Percentage of Income Payment Plan Pilot Programs

Adopted Percentage of income PIPP Pilot Program

Goal:

Test whether a PIPP program can:

• reduce the number of low-income households at risk of disconnection,
• encourage participation in energy saving and energy management programs,
• increase access to essential levels of energy service, and
• control program costs.

Pilot Size:

Up to 15,000 customers may participate in the pilots with the following participation caps applying by utility:

• PG&E 5,000
• SoCalGas 5,000
• SCE 4,000
• SDG&E 1,000

Target enrollment levels for each utility's pilot effective six months after pilot enrollment begins:

• PG&E 2,500
• SoCalGas 2,500
• SCE 2,000
• SDG&E 500

Eligibility:

• Limit to customers who are enrolled in the California Alternate Rates for Energy ("CARE") program and who either (i) are located in one of the zip codes with the highest rates of recurring disconnections prior to the disconnections moratorium, or (ii) have been disconnected 2 or more times during the 12 months prior to the disconnections moratorium.
• Each utility should propose in its consolidated PIPP Advice Letter eligible zip codes with the highest rates of recurring disconnections based on utility data, with a sufficient number of CARE-eligible customers for utilities to meet target enrollment levels within 6 months after pilot enrollment begins.
• Exclude from pilot participation (i) master-metered operators and its sub-metered tenants, (ii) direct access customers, (iii) customers who do not have a SmartMeter, (iv) customers are currently billed through PG&E’s Advanced Billing System, (v) customers who are enrolled in any other pilot, and (vi) customers enrolled in net energy metering rates.
• If a customer moves within the same utility service territory (and establishes service at the new location within 30 days of terminating service at the previous location), they should remain enrolled in pilot. Otherwise, the customer should be removed and should receive notice of how to apply to participate in the PIPP pilot in other service territories or their current service territory if service is established at a new location more than 30 days from terminating service at the previous location.
• Utilities may limit pilot participation to customers enrolled in the most commonly enrolled residential rates.

Community Choice Aggregators:

CCAs that participate in the Arrearages Management Plan (AMP) program as of the effective date of this decision should have the option to participate in a utility’s PIPP pilot, and the following provisions should apply to CCA participation:

• If a CCA in its service territory opts to participate, the utility will propose a CCA cost recovery proposal consistent with the AMP Resolution E-5114 in its PIPP Advice Letter.
• If a CCA in its service territory opts to participate, the utility will administer pilot enrollment, income verification, and billing. The utility will provide sufficient data to each participating CCA in weekly reports to facilitate CCA billing of pilot participants.
• If a CCA in its service territory opts to participate, the utility will administer pilot enrollment, income verification, and billing. The utility will provide sufficient data to each participating CCA in weekly reports to facilitate CCA billing of pilot participants.
• The CCA pilot participation cap shall be proportional to the utility's participation cap (based on the CCA's share of customers in the utility's service territory) and shall count toward the utility's participation cap.
• CCAs may propose eligible high recurring disconnection rate zip codes within the CCA's service territory regardless of whether the utility proposes the same high recurring disconnection rate zip codes.

Tax and Fees:

• Utilities will apply the PIPP bill cap to a customer’s bill after calculating any taxes and fees, so that the amount of the utility user tax or franchise fees will not be reduced by the customer’s participation in pilot.

Duration and Timeline:

• The pilot period will be 48 months.
• CCAs who opt to participate must notify the utility with a copy to the service list within 30 days of the final decision.
• Each utility will file a consolidated Tier 3 advice letter to implement its PIPP pilot within 120 days of the final decision.
• Each participating CCA will jointly file with the applicable utility a Tier 3 advice letter to participate in a utility's PIPP pilot within 120 days of the final decision.
• Each utility will commence PIPP pilot marketing, education, outreach and enrollment within 45 days of the approval of its pilot implementation advice letter.
• Each utility will enroll its target number of participants during first 6 months of pilot.
• Each utility and participating CCA will file and serve a report with evaluation metrics covering the previous 6 months of pilot data within 7 months after the launch of the pilot and every 6 months thereafter. If there is any significant shortfall in enrollments below target enrollment levels, the utility or CCA will explain the shortfall and the plan to remedy the shortfall.
• The evaluation contractor will complete the PIPP evaluation report within 23 months after pilots launch, based on at least the first 18 months of pilot data.
• If the PIPP evaluation report recommends modifications to the pilots to meet the goals established in this decision, the utilities will file Tier 2 advice letters to implement the modifications recommended by the PIPP evaluation report within 60 days of the completion of the report.
• The PIPP working group will file and serve recommendations for the long-term program design within 4 months after the PIPP evaluation report is filed and served.
• If the independent evaluation report finds that the pilots achieved the goals established in this decision or showed significant potential to achieve these goals with modifications, the utilities will file a joint application within 7 months after the PIPP evaluation report is filed and served.

Bill Caps:

Utilities will apply monthly bill caps set at 4% of household income with the following standard assumptions: household size of 3 people; reference income of 50% of Federal Poverty Guidelines for households with incomes between 0-100% of Federal Poverty Guidelines; and reference income of 150% of Federal Poverty Guidelines for households with incomes between 101-200% of Federal Poverty Guidelines.

• Utilities will update bill caps annually to reflect current income guidelines, concurrently with CARE program income guideline updates.
• The PIPP bill caps shall be implemented as a line-item bill credit, and the bill credits should be either (a) the difference between the bill cap and the actual bill, or (b) zero if the actual bill is lower than the bill cap.
• The bill caps for customers served by 2 utilities for electricity and gas shall be split into separate bill caps for electric and gas service. The utilities should include a joint proposal for splitting each bill cap between electric and gas for two different groups of climate zones in their PIPP Advice Letters. The split will be based on the average annualized CARE customer bill for electricity and gas in two categories of climate zones.

Missed Payment and Arrearages:

he PIPP pilots will rely on utilities’ existing bill collection processes to address missed payments. The PIPP bill caps should only apply to current charges and not past-due charges. Utilities should allow concurrent enrollment in the PIPP pilots and the AMP program. This decision does not modify AMP program rules.

Cost Recovery:

Utilities may recover electric costs through the Public Purpose Programs Charge. Utilities will recover gas costs from all gas customers in transportation rates on an equal-cents-per-therm basis. Utilities will record bill discounts in new two-way PIPP Balancing Accounts and record administrative costs in new PIPP Memorandum Accounts. Utilities will establish the new PIPP Memorandum Accounts and PIPP Balancing Accounts in their PIPP Advice Letters. CARE customers will not be exempted from paying the costs of the PIPP pilots.