ACCELERATING CARBON REDUCTIONS FROM CALIFORNIA’S ELECTRICITY SECTOR

The document proposes replacing the Renewable Portfolio Standard (RPS) and the Efficiency Savings and Performance Incentive (ESPI) with a system-wide carbon intensity standard and per capita energy sales standards. It argues that these reforms will align utility incentives with state climate goals, encourage low-carbon grid flexibility, and remove the conservative goal-setting and contentious evaluation processes currently hindering energy efficiency in existing buildings.

• The current Renewable Portfolio Standard (RPS) is insufficient as a long-term decarbonization policy because it siloes renewable energy from other resources and provides no incentive for utilities to integrate low-carbon flexibility solutions, often leading to the procurement of carbon-intensive natural gas turbines for grid reliability.
• The authors recommend implementing a system-wide carbon standard by 2030, specifically suggesting a target of 393lb. CO2e/MWh (or 48.9MMT CO2e), which aligns with the trajectory to reach 80 percent reductions from 1990 levels by 2050.
• To maintain investment certainty for renewable energy developers while transitioning to a carbon standard, the report proposes a 50 percent renewable energy procurement "backbone" through 2030.
• The existing Efficiency Savings and Performance Incentive (ESPI) is criticized for using overly conservative goals based on market potential rather than state carbon targets, and for a baseline methodology that disincentivizes upgrades for buildings that are significantly below code.
• The report proposes replacing the ESPI with performance-based intensity standards: a kWh/capita standard for electricity and a therms/capita standard for natural gas, targeting an annual reduction of approximately 1.2 percent through 2030.
• To prevent the kWh/capita standard from disincentivizing the adoption of electric vehicles (EVs), the authors suggest an adjustment mechanism that subtracts estimated EV load growth from the total load.
• The report suggests expanding the Energy Imbalance Market (EIM) to a West-wide electricity market to increase geographical diversity of resources, which reduces the need for costly peaking generators and minimizes renewable curtailment.
• The authors recommend expediting the implementation of AB 758 and suggest that the California Energy Commission (CEC) signal the future use of mandatory retrofit policies if voluntary programs fail to meet the required rate of progress.

APA

Orvis, R., O’Boyle, M., Aggarwal, S., & Harvey, H. (2015). ACCELERATING CARBON REDUCTIONS FROM CALIFORNIA’S ELECTRICITY SECTOR. Energy Innovation. https://energyinnovation.org/wp-content/uploads/2015_CA_ElectricityPolicy_FINAL-2.pdf

Chicago

Orvis, Robbie, Michael O’Boyle, Sonia Aggarwal, and Hal Harvey. ACCELERATING CARBON REDUCTIONS FROM CALIFORNIA’S ELECTRICITY SECTOR. Energy Innovation, 2015. https://energyinnovation.org/wp-content/uploads/2015_CA_ElectricityPolicy_FINAL-2.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |last1=Orvis |first1=Robbie |last2=O’Boyle |first2=Michael |last3=Aggarwal |first3=Sonia |last4=Harvey |first4=Hal |title=ACCELERATING CARBON REDUCTIONS FROM CALIFORNIA’S ELECTRICITY SECTOR |publisher=Energy Innovation |date=March 2015 |url=https://energyinnovation.org/wp-content/uploads/2015_CA_ElectricityPolicy_FINAL-2.pdf |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{orvis2015accelerating, author = {Orvis, Robbie and O’Boyle, Michael and Aggarwal, Sonia and Harvey, Hal}, title = {{ACCELERATING CARBON REDUCTIONS FROM CALIFORNIA’S ELECTRICITY SECTOR}}, institution = {Energy Innovation}, year = {2015}, month = mar, url = {https://energyinnovation.org/wp-content/uploads/2015_CA_ElectricityPolicy_FINAL-2.pdf}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }