California utilities dinged over efficiency goal
The four utilities — Pacific Gas and Electric Co, Southern California Edison Co, and Sempra Energy's San Diego Gas & Electric Co and Southern California Gas Co — achieved only 70 percent of the targeted energy savings in the 2006-2008 period, according to an independent consumer advocacy division of the California Public Utilities Commission, the state's energy regulator.
In stark contrast, the utilities had reported they achieved 160 percent of their goals, the commission's Division of Ratepayer Advocates DRA said, adding that the investor-owned utilities should not be entitled to any shareholder bonus payments from the CPUC.
The CPUC had put in place a program allowing the utilities to earn bonuses for achieving CPUC-established energy savings goals. The utilities could earn as much as $450 million in bonuses if the utilities exceeded goals.
The CPUC awarded the utilities $82 million in bonuses in 2008 based on self-reporting on energy efficiency programs, according to the DRA.
Also, the CPUC allowed the utilities to spend $2 billion of customers' money on energy efficiency programs in 2005 with the expectation that would generate $2.7 billion in net benefits for customers.
But the CPUC staff report said customers only received $426 million in net benefits, excluding $144 million of bonuses paid to utility shareholders, the DRA said.
"The CPUC staff report illustrates why independent verification of energy efficiency program achievements is so crucial," said DRA Director Dana Appling, in a statement. "The report shows that customers didn't get what they paid for, yet the utilities earn massive bonuses while customer energy rates continue to increase."
Related News

The nuclear power dispute driving a wedge between France and Germany
BERLIN - Near the French village of Fessenheim, facing Germany across the Rhine, a nuclear power station stands dormant. The German protesters that once demanded the site’s closure have decamped, and the last watts were produced three years ago.
But disagreements over how the plant from 1977 should be repurposed persist, speaking to a much deeper divide over nuclear power between the two countries on either side of the river’s banks.
German officials have disputed a proposal to turn it into a centre to treat metals exposed to low levels of radioactivity, Fessenheim’s mayor Claude Brender says. “They are not on board…