The CPUC decision last month allocates $935 million in ratepayer funding to commercial building energy efficiency programs. It also designates $98 million for commercial new-construction programs. The Commission sees a significant opportunity for energy savings in commercial buildings: They account for 38 percent of the state's electricity use and over 25 percent of natural gas consumption.

Commercial Energy Efficiency Program

The Commercial Energy Efficiency Program (CEEP) budget of $537 million for existing commercial buildings will provide strategic energy planning, technical energy services such as audits, and financial services through rebates and incentives. CEEP also targets distributed generation and demand response. Local and third-party programs bring the total budget to $935 million for existing commercial buildings.

CPUC encourages increased attention to benchmarks to motivate building owners to undertake energy improvements. This is consistent with AB 1103, state legislation that requires building owners to provide building consumption benchmarks in all commercial real estate transactions starting January 2010. Utilities will be required to benchmark any facility touched by CEEP.

New commercial construction energy efficiency

California's Strategic Plan calls for 100 percent of newly constructed commercial buildings to be zero net energy by 2030. Commercial new construction programs received $98 million of budget in the CPUC decision. Another $6 million was approved to broaden the scope of the Continuous Energy Improvement program for the industrial sector.

Residential and other programs

The remainder of the $3.1 billion total will fund residential energy efficiency programs, including California Statewide Program for Residential Energy Efficiency (CalSPREE), as well as education programs, pilots, benchmarking methods, validation processes, marketing campaigns, and a web portal.

Largest state program of its kind

The total budget is about 42 percent higher than the prior three-year program cycle, but about 20 percent less than was requested by the utilities. The 360-page CPUC decision establishes the energy savings goals the utilities must achieve between 2010 and 2012, the budgets to achieve those goals, the programs to produce the energy savings, and the metrics to be used to validate savings.

Beginning, January 1, 2010, the four utilities will launch 12 statewide programs, consolidated from the hundreds of separate programs originally proposed by the utilities earlier this year. Each utility may also offer additional programs to meet conditions in its service area or to pilot new approaches, but all programs will be meshed into statewide efforts.

The programs are expected to create energy savings of almost 7,000 gigawatt hours, which displaces the need for three new 500-megawatt power plants. Savings of 150 million metric therms of natural gas also are anticipated. Together, they would avoid three million tons of greenhouse gas emissions. The CPUC says funding from this decision can create between 15,000 and 18,000 skilled green jobs, or about 5 jobs per million dollars.

The four investor-owned utilities affected by the CPUC decision are Southern California Edison, Pacific Gas and Electric Company, San Diego Gas and Electric Company, and Southern California Gas Company.

Energy efficiency is the first priority in California's loading order for energy resources according to its Energy Action Plan.