REPORT TO COUNCIL
SUBJECT
Title
Action on the 2019 Power Source Disclosure Reports and Power Content Label
Report
COUNCIL PILLAR
Deliver and Enhance High Quality Efficient Services and Infrastructure
BACKGROUND
The Power Source Disclosure (PSD) program was established by Senate Bill (SB) 1305 (Stats. 1997, ch. 796) in an effort to provide retail electricity consumers "accurate, reliable, and simple to understand information on the sources of energy that are used to provide electric services."
In 2016, the California Energy Commission (CEC) adopted modifications to the regulations to incorporate statutory changes to program rules and reporting requirements as required by Assembly Bill (AB) 162 (Stats. 2009, ch. 313) and AB 2227 (Stats. 2012, ch. 616). AB 1110 (Stats. 2016, ch. 656) modified the PSD Program and Power Content Label by requiring retail suppliers to disclose the greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions intensity (the rate of emissions per unit of electricity) associated with each electricity portfolio beginning in 2020 for the 2019 reporting year. AB 1110 also required the CEC among other things, to determine a format for disclosing unbundled renewable energy credits (RECs) as a percentage of annual retail sales.
The law requires that electricity retail suppliers, like the City of Santa Clara's Electric Department, dba Silicon Valley Power (SVP), disclose to customers which types of resources are used to generate the electricity being sold to them. SVP is required to use the format developed by the CEC called the Power Content Label (PCL). As part of this reporting, SVP is required to submit a detailed report of SVP's resource mix per energy product offered to the public as part of the Power Source Disclosure (PSD) report.
The disclosure requirements are intended, in part, to address concerns about protecting consumers from misleading and fraudulent promotional efforts. The PCL, which resembles nutrition labels, with a breakdown of energy sources suc...
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