SUBJECT
Title
Consideration of the Silicon Valley Power 2020 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 2021 for the 2020 reporting year. AB 1110 also required the CEC among other things, to determine a format for disclosing unbundled California eligible renewable energy credits (RECs) as a percentage of annual retail sales to be shown as an offset.
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 reporting format developed by the CEC called the Power Content Label (PCL). The data that is used to create the PCL comes from SVP's Power Source Disclosure (PSD) report that is audited through a third party and submitted to the CEC. Additionally, that CEC combines information from all in-state generation plant owners plus information on electricity imports and exports provided by the California Independent System Operator (CAISO) and other grid balancing authori...
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