PG&E missed California's renewable mandate

California utilities including PG&E did not meet the state's renewable mandates to source 20 percent of their energy from renewable sources by 2010, according to reports filed with the California Public Utilities Commission. Renewable energy developers have been stymied by complicated permitting processes, a lack of transmission as well as a lack of financing for renewable projects plus the closing of several companies that didn't survive the recession.

At the end of 2010, Pacific Gas and Electric Co. said 17.7 percent of its electricity came from renewable sources in 2010. Investor-owned and municipal utilities were required by a 2002 law to reach 20 percent by 2010. The other two major investor-owned utilities, Southern California Edison and San Diego Gas & Electric Co. also missed the mark reaching 19.4 percent and 11.9 percent. San Diego Gas & Electric has said that transmission lines were a major factor in limiting the amount of renewable power the utility could bring online. The California Energy Commission must now verify the reports submitted by the utilities before the CPUC determines whether utilities were in compliance with the law, a CPUC spokesperson said. The CPUC has the authority to fine utilities for not meeting the renewable mandates.

Contributing to the missed goals, a status report issued by the CPUC Monday shows PG&E lost electricity from more than about 1 gigawatt (or 3,670 terawatt hours) of potential renewable supply when contracts it signed were canceled or withdrawn.

In March 2010, PG&E President Chris Johns told investors: “We have contracts well in excess of 20 percent. What we don’t know is what percentage of those companies will be able to complete (their projects) and get online.”

Read more in the San Francisco Business Times.