Achieving 100% Net-Zero Carbon Emissions and the Coordinated Role of Gas Technical Working Group #2

AGENDA

EPIC Policy + Innovation Coordination Group

Achieving 100% Net-Zero Carbon Emissions and
the Coordinated Role of Gas Technical Working Group #2

May 15, 2024, 9:30 am – 12:30 pm – Virtual Only

REGISTER

Public Webinar Registration

Participants must register to join the meeting prior to the event at the following link: https://events.zoom.us/ev/Ass8km8j7kmjfdRkV8k7mAQav1X2KzKQ-HR9F19FV6KUnUFc8ytc~Ah8MyTiIzMVQR7swUh1HwuQ9tv9cI_ib2AzZBCrpkPcCR7j7OwhX1pl76g

(Call-in Option: +1-408-638-0968; Meeting ID provided to registrants)

Background

About the EPIC Program. The Electric Program Investment Charge (EPIC) supports the development of new, emerging, and pre-commercial clean energy innovations in California. The California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) requires that EPIC portfolios be designed to ensure ratepayer benefits in the form of equitable access to safe, affordable, reliable, and environmentally sustainable energy for electricity ratepayers. This program is funded by California utility customers under the auspices of the CPUC. EPIC funds are currently administered by the California Energy Commission (CEC), which administers 80% of EPIC funds and Pacific Gas and Electric (PG&E), Southern California Edison (SCE), and San Diego Gas & Electric (SDG&E), which together administer the remaining 20% of EPIC funds.

In its most recent EPIC Decision (D.)24-03-007, the CPUC approved five (5) Strategic Goals for the EPIC Program. The approved Strategic Goals are Transportation Electrification, Distributed Energy Resource Integration, Building Decarbonization, Achieving 100 Percent Net-Zero Carbon Emissions and the Coordinated Role of Gas, and Climate Adaptation. These are clear and measurable goals for developing EPIC portfolios to be used in program evaluations to measure impacts of EPIC investments in supporting achievement of California’s 2045 climate, energy, and equity targets. The next steps authorized by the decision include several workshops to develop Strategic Objectives.

Strategic Objectives are clear, measurable, and robust targets to guide EPIC investment plan strategies to scale and deploy innovation to align with EPIC's Strategic Goals that:

• Address the key gaps in critical pathways to achieving California’s climate goals,
• Focus on the unique role ratepayer funded research, development, and demonstration (RD&D) can play in leading innovation investment, and
• Consider important crosscutting principles identified in the decision.

Specifically, D.24-03-007 endorsed principles for crosscutting strategies to be considered in development of the Strategic Objectives. These principles relate to (1) equity, (2) emerging strategies, and (3) safety (including cybersecurity).

Purpose of the Virtual Achieving 100% Net-Zero Carbon Emissions and the Coordinated Role of Gas Working Group

The second Achieving 100% Net-Zero Carbon Emissions and the Coordinated Role of Gas Working Group is intended to be an interactive working session. It will focus on refining draft approaches to Strategic Objectives developed at the first working group meeting for the EPIC Program's new Achieving 100% Net-Zero Carbon Emissions and the Coordinated Role of Gas Strategic Goal. The event will consist of a presentation on outputs from the April 12, 2024 in-person Achieving 100% Net-Zero Carbon Emissions and the Coordinated Role of Gas Working Group meeting. The presentation will be followed by a facilitated stakeholder discussion on critical elements of the draft measurable Strategic Objectives and Impact Analysis Framework as well as consideration of proposed refinements.

Participation in the Working Group is open to all interested parties.

The guiding framework for the Strategic Objectives Technical Working Group process are the four core elements developed in the 2023 Strategic Goals Workshop process:

• Pathways: Set of critical actions necessary to support meeting the State’s 2045 zero carbon goals via the most effective strategies and technology innovation.
• Gaps: Key challenges for achieving zero carbon goals and how RD&D should be prioritized to address opportunities and barriers more quickly along critical pathways.
• Roles: The best-positioned stakeholders (ratepayers, state, federal, private sector) to lead innovation investment addressing identified gaps, including through coordination and collaboration.
• Outcomes: Clear, measurable, and reasonable targets to be used by administrators in developing EPIC portfolios and used in program evaluations to measure impacts of EPIC in supporting achievement of California’s 2045 zero carbon goals.

Format – Virtual Only

The Accelerate Group will facilitate the Technical Working Group meeting under the guidance of CPUC’s Energy Division.

Agenda

Participants from community-based organizations (CBOs), federally or non-federally recognized California Native American Tribes, and tribal entities are eligible for CPUC funding for participation in this event through the Equity and Access Grant program. For more information, please visit https://www.cpuc.ca.gov/about-cpuc/divisions/news-and-public-information-office/business-and-community-outreach/equity-and-access-grant-program. For any questions, please reach out to capacitygrants@cpuc.ca.gov.

The EPIC program is funded by California utility customers under the auspices of the California Public Utilities Commission.

This notice was sent to service lists A.21-11-021, A.22-10-001, A.22-10-002, A.22-10-003, R.11-05-005, R.15-05-006, R.17-07-007, R.18-03-011, R.18-04-019, R.18-07-006, R.18-10-007, R.18-12-005, R.18-12-006, R.19-01-011, R.19-09-009, R.19-10-005, R.20-01-007, R.20-05-003, R.20-11-003, R.21-06-017, R.21-10-002, R.21-11-014, R.22-07-005, R.22-11-013, R.23-12-008, and R.24-01-017. If workshop participants discuss any open proceedings that were not noticed, then any such discussions become ex parte communications, and must be noticed to the open proceeding according to Rule 8.4. One or more CPUC or CEC Commissioners and Advisors, and Administrative Law Judges may attend, but no official Commission action will be taken at this event. This notice is issued pursuant to Rule 8.1 of the Commission’s Rules of Practice and Procedure which states that an ex parte communication means a written or oral communication that “does not occur in a public hearing, workshop, or other public forum, that has been noticed to the official service list or on the record of the proceeding.”