The Community Solar Green Tariff CSGT Program

Community Solar Green Tariff (CSGT)

The Community Solar Green Tariff (CSGT) provides local solar energy at a 20% bill discount for both income-qualified and non-income qualified residential customers in Disadvantaged Communities (DACs) who may be unable to install solar on their roof. The program also requires a local government or non-profit community sponsorship and promotes workforce development and job training in DACs. Those interested in learning more should visit each Program Administrator’s website:

Key Components of the CSGT Program:

  • Funding from Greenhouse Gas (GHG) Auction Proceeds and Public Purpose Program funds
  • Encourages community-sited solar system installations in California’s Disadvantaged Communities (DACs) across the state
  • Emphasizing the goal of overcoming ownership, structural, financial, and linguistic barriers to clean energy access for low-income and non-low-income residential customers
  • Provides a 20% discounted green rate to eligible residential customers in DACs on their monthly energy bill
  • Up to 41 megawatts of solar generating capacity to be procured by participating Program Administrators (Investor-Owned Utilities and Community Choice Aggregators)

Implementation of AB327

Assembly Bill (AB) 327 (Perea, 2013) directed the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) to develop specific alternatives designed to increase adoption of renewable generation in DACs. In June 2018, the CPUC created the CSGT to increase access to solar for residents of disadvantaged communities located within PG&E's, SCE's, or SDG&E's service territory in Decision (D.)18-06-027.

The program enables income residential customers in DACs who may be unable to install solar on their roof to benefit from a local solar project and receive a 20% bill discount. The program is modeled after the existing Enhanced Community Renewables (ECR) portion of the Green Tariff Shared Renewables Programs and is available to both income-qualified and non-income-qualified residential customers.

The CSGT program was launched in early 2020 and will begin enrolling customers in 2022. The three large investor-owned utilities and six Community Choice Aggregators have launched or will be launching soon.

Applying for CSGT Program Incentives

CSGT is available for residential customers in DACs or in San Joaquin Valley (SJV) pilot communities identified in R.15-03-010. CSGT projects must be sited in DACs within 5 miles of DAC(s) where subscribing customers reside or within 40 miles for SJV pilot communities. Fifty percent of a project’s output must be subscribed by customers eligible for CARE and FERA. Customers must also live in one of the top 25 % most disadvantaged communities statewide or the census tracts in the highest 5 percent of CalEnviroScreen's Pollution Burden and be a billing customer of participating utility or Community Choice Aggregator.

The CSGT program will begin enrolling customers in 2022 after the first projects come online. For more information please go to your participating Program Administrator website below:

Recent News for CSGT

  • April 2021: Resolution E-5124 is issued approving CleanPowerSF’s, East Bay Community Energy’s, Marin Clean Energy’s, Peninsula Clean Energy’s, and San Jose Clean Energy’s CSGT program implementation plans with modifications. The first tri-annual independent evaluation of the DAC-GT and CSGT programs is launched with an anticipated end date of February 2022.
  • August 2021: Resolution E-5125 issued approving with modification PG&E’s and SCE’s requests to adjust administrative and marketing budget caps for the DAC-GT and/or CSGT programs.
  • September 2021: Energy Division (ED) held a public webinar to suggest topics for inclusion by the IOUs in their forthcoming applications reviewing the DAC-GT and CSGT programs’ goals, budget, capacity, design, and implementation among other topics. ED staff also proposed that the IOUs include the Green Tariff Shared Renewables (GTSR) and Enhanced Community Renewables (ECR) Programs as part of the Applications in order to better align CPUC programs offering alternatives to rooftop solar.
  • October 2021: SDG&E agrees to transfer DAC-GT and CSGT program capacity to San Diego Community Power. The CPUC Executive Director approves PG&E’s, SCE’s, and SDG&E’s request to extend the DAC-GT and CSGT Applications for Review due date by approximately 4 months from January to mid-April of 2022. SCE’s and SDG&E’s request to suspend future solicitations until procurement challenges and program design limitations can be addressed in the 2022 Applications was also approved.

Procurement & Requests for Offers

Upcoming Events for CSGT Proceedings and Reports

  • 2022 IOU Applications for Review
    • D.18-06-027 established that each IOU would file an Application for Review for the DAC-GT and CSGT programs by January 1, 2021. The CPUC Executive Director has since extended the deadline until May 31, 2022 (the 60th day following issuance and service of the Independent Evaluation Final Report). The proceeding(s) that may be initiated by these applications will review program goals, budget, capacity, design, implementation, and consumer protections.
    • D.21-12-036, issued in December 2021, also directed that the IOUs include implementation details for the Green Tariff Shared Renewables (GTSR) Program in their DAC-GT & CSGT Applications.
    • Energy Division staff shared a guidance template and held a public webinar in September 2021 to better communicate what additional information the Applications should include. Any additional topics from stakeholders can be raised by parties in comments on the Applications, to be submitted via the R.14-07-002 Service List and cross-posted to the GTSR A.12-01-008. You can request to be added to a service list here or subscribe to published documents here.

CSGT Quarterly & Semi-Annual Reports

Pursuant to Decision 18-06-027 and Resolution E-4999 each Program Administrator must file and serve quarterly reports describing the capacity procured, capacity online, and customers subscribed. The reports must also identify DACs in which projects are locate and list the number of participating customers in each DAC within each Program Administrator’s service territory. Finally, the quarterly reports must include the number of customers who have successfully enrolled in CARE and FERA in the process of signing up for the DAC-GT program.

Additionally, Program Administrators must each file a semi-annual report after the end of each six-month period of the year for CSGT projects. The report must report to Energy Division Central Files the number of income-qualified customers subscribed to each project and the capacity those customers are receiving, whether a waitlist of non-income-qualified customers exist and the size of that list, and if the project sponsors are receiving bill credits under CSGT projects, the size of each sponsor’s subscription. Lastly, each Program Administrator's semi-annual report must also include the number of master metered properties served on its CSGT tariffs and the total capacity those properties are subscribed to receive.

 

Clean Power Alliance

East Bay Community Energy

Marin Clean Energy

PG&E

SCE

SDG&E

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