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Calif. regulators approve $738M for electric vehicle charging

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Calif. regulators approve $738M for electric vehicle charging

California's three large investor-owned utilities can spend $738 million on electric vehicle charging and related infrastructure after the state's Public Utilities Commission on May 31 approved four new programs collectively touted as the largest such utility investment in the United States to date.

The decision boosts California utilities' total EV-charging infrastructure budgets approved over the last three years to nearly $1 billion, Commissioner Carla Peterman said during a meeting ahead of a unanimous 5-0 vote. "The hard work really begins now in implementation of these programs," she said, noting their importance to the state's overall effort to slash greenhouse gas emissions 40% below 1990 levels by 2030.

The Commission authorized $342.7 million for Edison International's Southern California Edison Co. to expand infrastructure to support medium- and heavy-duty electric vehicles and $236.3 million for a similar program from Pacific Gas and Electric Co. Regulators also approved $22.4 million for the PG&E Corp. subsidiary's new fast-charging program and $136.9 million for a residential charging program proposed by Sempra Energy's San Diego Gas & Electric Co., or SDG&E. The companies can recover the approved investments through electric rates.

The decision, which also set aside $29.5 million for program evaluation, went beyond a proposed decision by two administrative law judges that recommended budgets totaling $589 million. The investments include "higher budgets and higher rebates for customers adopting electric trucks and equipment in disadvantaged communities," Peterman said, "and in the heavy-polluting goods movement sector."

'Measured utility ownership'

The approval enables "measured utility ownership" of EV charging infrastructure. Regulators found that utility ownership of charging infrastructure "dramatically drives up costs, in comparison to alternative ownership models." Nevertheless they allowed it in some cases. Customers participating in SoCalEd and PG&E's programs to provide charging for mid-sized and heavy-duty vehicles, for instance, can choose their preferred ownership model for behind-the-meter infrastructure.

Regulators, however, denied SDG&E the ability to own charging infrastructure on the residential customer's side of the meter, in part to ensure that the utility "does not unfairly compete with nonutility enterprises," but ordered SDG&E to indicate within 14 days whether the utility accepts the changes made to its proposed home charging program and whether it might pursue "a companion incentive mechanism."

"We will be assessing these options and making a decision in the coming weeks," an SDG&E representative said.

PG&E was more enthusiastic. "We look forward to getting started on these new projects," a PG&E official said in an email. "Expanding the adoption of electricity as a clean transportation fuel is essential to California's success in climate and clean-air goals."

In a response on its website, SoCalEd said the plan aligned with its "vision for a clean energy future."

"This marks the nation's single largest investment by the electric industry to eat away at Big Oil's longtime monopoly over transportation fuels," a spokesman for the Natural Resources Defense Council said in an email.

The decision followed the commission's action in January to allow utilities to proceed on 15 pilot projects focused largely on medium- and heavy-duty EV infrastructure. Both decisions were in response to utilities' January 2017 proposals to spend roughly $1 billion, combined, on EV charging infrastructure.