Does the California Standard Offer program eliminate conflicts of interest?
The California Coalition’s Standard Offer Program is the only model that eliminates conflicts of interest in both the utilities and EM&V contractors, even though it does not necessarily ban IOUs from administration. The program has an overall System Director, either the CPUC or a neutral (non-utility) entity under contract to the Commission, that handles many of the high-level goal-setting and supervision tasks. Next, participants are required to select only one role: administration/ implementation/ or EM&V. An EM&V Committee is placed directly under the System Director, and charged with managing all program measurement and statewide studies, as well as licensing measurement contractors.Most importantly, the S.O. is a way of truly ending IOU monopoly control over EE without having to eliminate them from the business. The magic elements are: • Standard Offer programs only pay for saving energy. With one stroke, this eliminates the utilities’ incentive to overspend on administrative cost
The California Coalition’s Standard Offer Program is the only model that eliminates conflicts of interest in both the utilities and EM&V contractors, even though it does not necessarily ban IOUs from administration. The program has an overall System Director, either the CPUC or a neutral (non-utility) entity under contract to the Commission, that handles many of the high-level goal-setting and supervision tasks. Next, participants are required to select only one role: administration/ implementation/ or EM&V. An EM&V Committee is placed directly under the System Director, and charged with managing all program measurement and statewide studies, as well as licensing measurement contractors. Most importantly, the S.O. is a way of truly ending IOU monopoly control over EE without having to eliminate them from the business. The magic elements are: • Standard Offer programs only pay for saving energy. With one stroke, this eliminates the utilities’ incentive to overspend on administrative cos
