Goes.pdf

The Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA) recommends that the California Public Utilities Commission adopt cost-based, income-graduated monthly fixed charges for residential rate schedules, as required by Assembly Bill 205 (AB 205). The proposed fixed charges would be designed to collect only the investor-owned utilities' (IOUs) marginal customer access costs and would be income-graduated, with discounts for low-income customers. SEIA proposes using the existing California Alternate Rates For Energy (CARE) and Family Energy Rate Assistance (FERA) programs to establish three graduated rate tiers, with discounts of 30-35% for CARE customers and 18% for FERA customers. The proposed fixed charges would result in modest bill impacts, with small rate reductions for many low-income customers and small rate increases for low-usage customers. SEIA cautions that fixed charges should not be expected to play a major role in promoting electrification and recommends focusing on implementing time-of-use rate designs based on marginal costs to encourage customers to be more flexible and intelligent in their energy usage.