In-Person Achieving Net-Zero Carbon Emissions and the Coordinated Role of Gas TWG

EPIC Policy + Innovation Coordination Group
In-Person Achieving 100% Net-Zero Carbon Emissions and the Coordinated Role of Gas Technical Working Group
April 12, 2024, 10:00 am – 5:00 pm

Location
California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC), Courtyard Room
505 Van Ness Avenue
San Francisco, CA 94102

Public In-Person Registration
Participants must register to join the in-person meeting prior to the event at the following link: https://events.zoom.us/ev/Ah7BsbkasZ3IbBdaDwmeHZbbHsERzAiyPKn2A5r0QgpIT9cA9yUQ~AnOZRJ6A5PuVW-Hhy4O1vnz8E_GkgfQRAyany0l_SvpWhIqiArsw_hkuPQ 

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 In-Person Achieving 100% Net-Zero Carbon Emissions and the Coordinated Role of Gas Working Group
The In-Person Achieving 100% Net-Zero Carbon Emissions and the Coordinated Role of Gas Technical Working Group is an interactive working session focused on developing initial draft approaches to Strategic Objectives for the Achieving 100% Net-Zero Carbon Emissions and the Coordinated Role of Gas Strategic Goal, including cross-cutting issues such as equity, reliability, and cybersecurity. Additionally, the working group process will examine principles for a Uniform Impact Analysis Framework focusing on metrics, assumptions, and methodologies. This Framework is intended to measure progress resulting from EPIC program investments in Achieving 100% Net-Zero Carbon and the Coordinated Role of Gas RD&D guided by established Strategic Goals and Strategic Objectives. The event will consist of individual breakout sessions, collaborative Strategic Objective development, and Uniform Impact Analysis Framework activities.

Participation in the Working Group is open to all interested parties. There will not be a virtual component to this working group event.

The guiding framework for the Strategic Objectives Technical Working Group process is 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
The Accelerate Group will facilitate the Technical Working Group meeting under the guidance of CPUC’s Energy Division.  

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.”