In a 6/6/23 press release, the Washington Utilities and Transportation Commission, which regulates private, investor-owned electric and natural gas utilities in Washington, announced today that it approved with conditions Puget Sound Energy (PSE)’s first Clean Energy Implementation Plan (CEIP) required under the Clean Energy Transformation Act.  The approved plan proposes that PSE will serve 63% of its sales of electricity with clean energy by 2025. In its decision, the commission ordered PSE to update its specific target for demand response technology, increase its support for community solar instead of leasing solar resources to customers, and update its evaluation of utility scale batteries as a resource to meet demand.

The Clean Energy Transformation Act (CETA) requires regulated utilities to submit Clean Energy Implementation Plans to the commission every four years for approval. The CEIP must demonstrate the utility’s progress toward achieving CETA standards. The plan must propose targets and identify specific actions to pursue cost-effectiveness, safe and reliable systems, customer equity, and burden reduction for vulnerable populations and highly impacted communities. 

The approved plan proposes that PSE will serve 63% of its sales of electricity with clean energy by 2025. In its order, the commission emphasized the company needs to consider potential cost-savings provided by recent federal legislation and the company needs to comply with clean energy transformation standards at the lowest reasonable cost.

The commission also approved other specific targets proposed in the CEIP, including a voluntary target for distributed energy resources.

In its decision, the commission ordered PSE to update its specific target for demand response technology, increase its support for community solar instead of leasing solar resources to customers, and update its evaluation of utility scale batteries as a resource to meet demand.

The commission found that PSE’s plan failed to describe the specific actions it will take over the next four years, and it was not sufficient for PSE to state that it was waiting for bids in response to its request for proposals. The commission declined to reject the plan, noting that the CEIP was the company’s initial plan under CETA and that the company could address the plan’s shortcomings in future filings.

In its order, the commission made clear that the failure of any investor-owned utility to describe its specific actions could result in the commission rejecting the CEIP or assessing penalties, “Specific actions are so critical to the CEIP that any future CEIP that fails to provide specific actions will likely be rejected and/or subject to penalties.”

PSE is required to file an update to its CEIP with the commission by Nov. 1, and its next CEIP is due in 2025.