For Customers
California's Green Tariff Shared Renewables Program gives millions of residents the opportunity to meet up to 100% of their electricity needs with solar generation. The measure requires Pacific Gas & Electric Company, Southern California Edison Company, and San Diego Gas and Electric Company to offer 100% solar energy options to their customers. To learn more about these programs, visit the California Green Tariff Shared Renewables Program Information for Customers page.
For Developers and Generators
When developing programs for the CA ECR Program, developers and generators must be aware that they will be offering a Green-e® certified product, as required by a CPUC decision in January 2015. Developers and generators offering renewable energy products as part of this ECR program must be prepared to work within marketing guidelines set by CRS, which are found in the Green-e® Energy Code of Conduct.
This section exists to help developers and generators successfully work with Green-e® staff from the start, learn what rules and processes should be followed, and to provide links to key relevant information.
Under the CA Enhanced Community Renewables (ECR) Program, developers take on the responsibility for marketing their electricity product(s) directly to residential and commercial customers, who have become accustomed to receiving that type of information from their utility. Green-e® serves in part as a consumer watchdog verifying that the end customer receives accurate and sufficient disclosures about the product(s) they intend to buy. Developers and generators participating in a California utility ECR program must follow the same rules as any other marketer of a Green-e® certified product.
Green-e Developer Requirements for Participation
Among the responsibilities a developer or generator will be required to manage are:
- Detailed and accurate product communications when marketing to customers. Guidance is provided in the Green-e® Code of Conductand Green-e ECR Developer and Generator Requirements.
- Developing and sending a "Welcome Packet" that informs the customer about the price, age, source, and type of the renewable energy being provided in the product they have expressed interest in buying.
- Creation of a webpage that provides certain assurances, connection to a live person to answer questions, and links to the utility providing the connection as well as to the Green-e® website.
To review the requirements in more detail, please read (and download) Green-e ECR Developer and Generator Requirements ("Green-e® Developer Requirements"). You will be required to submit a Green-e® ECR Developer Cover Sheet ("Cover Sheet") with your materials. Green-e® requirements were also presented in detail during a presentation on September 16th, 2016. Green-e® Developer Requirements, Cover Sheet, and slides from the September 16th presentation are available on the Green-e Energy Documents page under "California Enhanced Community Renewable Documents". Your utility and the CPUC may have additional requirements.
Each utility has been required to create a developer-facing webpage about the ECR program. Links to these webpages are below:
- SDG&E Share the Sun developer resources
- SCE Community Renewables Program developer resources
- PG&E Regional Renewable Choice developer resources
Green-e Requirements for California Utilities
As your partner in the delivery of renewable energy products to California residents, each of the three large CA IOUs are also required to abide by the Green-e® Code of Conduct, and will be annually audited against the Green-e® Energy National Standard for approved products provided under the ECR Program. In addition, the utilities are required to create a webpage that includes a list of approved developers and generators, a link to this page and to the webpage you create for customers, and direct access to a person who can answer questions.
To review the requirements in more detail, please read (and download) Green-e® ECR Utility Requirements and the Green-e® ECR Timeline, located on the Green-e Energy Documents page.
About SB 43
The California wide regulation opens up the state to more renewable energy choices for more of its citizens, as the state continues to increase the short-term goals for renewables' contribution to the overall electricity mix. Recent CPUC guidance requires that citizens (including businesses) be provided with certified options, citing the consumer protections provided by Green-e® certification. To read more about the rules passed by the CPUC in 2015, Read the February 5, 2015 release "California Directs State's Largest Utilities to Offer Green-e Energy Certified Green Power Programs".