California Renewables Portfolio Standard (RPS) 

Established in 2002 under Senate Bill 1078, accelerated in 2006 under Senate Bill 107 and expanded in 2011 under Senate Bill 2, California's Renewables Portfolio Standard (RPS) is one of the most ambitious renewable energy standards in the country. The RPS program requires investor-owned utilities (IOUs), electric service providers, and community choice aggregators to increase procurement from eligible renewable energy resources to 33% of total procurement by 2020. See the Program Overview page for more information.  

The California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) implements and administers RPS compliance rules for California’s retail sellers of electricity, which include investor-owned utilities (IOU), electric service providers (ESP) and community choice aggregators (CCA). The California Energy Commission (CEC) is responsible for the certification of electrical generation facilities as eligible renewable energy resources, and adopting regulations for the enforcement of RPS procurement requirements of Publicly Owned Utilities (POUs). Additional information pertaining to the CEC’s roles in California RPS program can be found here.  

 Click here to find contact information for the members of the RPS team.  

 

Current Renewable Procurement Status

California's three large IOUs collectively served 22.7% of their 2013 retail electricity sales with renewable power. See below for a table of the of the large IOUs progress towards meeting their 33% compliance obligations in 2020. Additional project information for the large IOUs can be found by downloading the latest RPS Monthly Project Status Table (updated August 10, 2016).

Renewable Procurement Status Percentages

Actual RPS Procurement Percentages in 2014		Percentage of RPS Procurement Currently Under Contract for 2020
PG&E- 28.0 %   SCE – 23.2%   SDG&E - 31.6%		PG&E- 37.0%   SCE – 36.9%   SDG&E - 43.1%

Detailed Overview of RPS Programs 

RPS Procurement Programs  Click here for additional information on the various RPS procurement programs including utility Request for Offers, Feed in Tariff , etc.		RPS Compliance Rules and Process   Click here for 33% RPS program rules, unpopulated compliance report spreadsheet templates and historic compliance report submissions.
Ongoing RPS Implementation  Click here for additional information on the RPS calculator, renewable integration, and cost containment.		RPS Reports, Presentations and Charts  Click here for power point slides featuring RPS charts and graphs from RPS Reports to the Legislature and other statutory reports.