This document is the joint response of the Alliance and 11 other signatory organizations to the CPUC’s High DER Future, Track 2 proposed process for “Evaluating Alternative Distribution System Operator (DSO) Models for California.” Despite claiming to “level the playing field” and encourage an “open and creative” process for considering DSO models, the CPUC has decided to focus once again on a utility-centered deliberation that ignores the crucial stakes that our communities have in who operates the distribution grid and for whose benefit.
This alternative proposal reminds the CPUC that its own Environmental and Social Justice Action Plan commits to prioritize equity and resilience of communities and remove barriers for stakeholders to engage with the distribution grid. This must start with providing clear, unbiased, and accessible information about the benefits to our communities of distributed energy resources (DERs) and the dangers of the current utility-driven centralized energy model. Communities must be involved in every stage of developing a new DSO framework, especially in setting the objectives of a DSO model in the first place.
