The Disadvantaged Communities Green Tariff DAC-GT Program

Disadvantaged Communities Green Tariff (DAC-GT)

The Disadvantaged Communities Green Tariff (DAC-GT) provides utility scale clean energy at a 20% bill discount for income-qualified, residential customers in DACs who may be unable to install solar on their roof. Those interested in learning more about the DAC-GT program should visit each Program Administrator’s website:

Key Components of the DAC-GT Program:

  • Funding from Greenhouse Gas (GHG) Auction Proceeds and Public Purpose Program funds
  • Encourages solar system installations in California’s Disadvantaged Communities (DACs) across the state
  • Emphasizing the goal of overcoming ownership, structural, financial, and linguistic barriers to clean energy access for low-income residential customers
  • Provides a 20% discounted green rate to CARE- and FERA-eligible residential customers in DACs on their monthly energy bill
  • Up to 158 megawatts of clean generating capacity to be procured by participating Program Administrators (investor-owned utilities and Community Choice Aggregators)

Implementation of AB327

Assembly Bill (AB) 327 (Perea, 2013) directed the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) to develop specific alternatives designed to increase adoption of renewable generation in disadvantaged communities (DACs). In June 2018, the CPUC created DAC-GT to increase access to solar for residents of disadvantaged communities located within PG&E's, SCE's, or SDG&E's service territory in Decision 18-06-027.

The program enables income-qualified, residential customers in DACs who may be unable to install solar on their roof to benefit from utility scale clean energy and receive a 20% bill discount. The program is modeled after the existing Green Tariff portion of the Green Tariff/Shared Renewables Programs and is available to customers who meet the income eligibility requirements for the California Alternate Rates for Energy (CARE) and Family Electric Rate Assistance (FERA) programs.

The DAC-GT program was launched and began enrolling customers in early 2020. The three large investor-owned utilities and ten Community Choice Aggregators have launched or will be launching soon.

Applying for DAC-GT Program Incentives

DAC-GT is available to residential customers in DACs who meet the income eligibility requirements for the CARE and FERA programs. Homeowners must live in one of the top 25 % most disadvantaged communities statewide or the census tracts in the highest 5 percent of CalEnviroScreen's Pollution Burden and be a billing customer of a participating utility or Community Choice Aggregator.

For information on how to apply for incentives in your area, please go to your participating Program Administrator website below. In some cases, eligible customers may be automatically enrolled in the program.

Recent News for DAC-GT

  • D.24-05-065 expanded and improved existing community solar programs and launched a new community renewable energy program that will allow California to capture millions of dollars in state and federal funding, including the Solar For All grant recently awarded to California by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency through support of the Biden Administration. More information can be found at www.cpuc.ca.gov/communitysolar.
  • In response to the Assembly Bill 2316 mandate to minimize duplicative offerings while promoting robust participation by low-income customers, the Decision ended the Community Solar Green Tariff Program (CSGT) with the exception of legacy projects and transferred the remaining capacity into the DAC-GT program. The Decision expands the geographic boundaries of a disadvantaged community to allow for more eligible projects that serve low-income customers.
  • Proceeding A.22-05-022 began in May 2022 and included the legislative directives of AB 2316 (Ward, 2022) and AB 2838 (O’Donnell, 2022), which required the Commission to review its existing customer renewable energy subscription programs including DAC Green Tariff, Community Solar Green Tariff and Green Tariff Shared Renewables programs and consider whether to adopt a new community renewable energy program. This proceeding also reviewed program goals, budget, capacity, design, implementation, and consumer protections

Procurement & Requests for Offers

Upcoming Events for DAC-GT Proceedings and Reports

  • 2022 IOU Applications for Review
    • D.18-06-027 established that each IOU would file an Application for Review for the DAC-GT and CSGT programs by January 1, 2021. The CPUC Executive Director has since extended the deadline until June 2022 (or the 60th day following issuance of the Independent Evaluation Final Report). The proceeding(s) that may be initiated by these applications will review program goals, budget, capacity, design, implementation, and consumer protections.
    • D.21-12-036, issued in December 2021, also directed that the IOUs include implementation details for the Green Tariff Shared Renewables (GTSR) Program in their DAC-GT & CSGT Applications.
    • Energy Division staff shared a guidance template and held a public webinar in September 2021 to better communicate what additional information the Applications should include. Any additional topics from stakeholders can be raised by parties in comments on the Applications, anticipated to be submitted via the R.14-07-002 Service List and cross posted to the GTSR A.12-01-008 by June 2022. You can request to be added to a service list here or subscribe to published documents here.

DAC-GT Quarterly Reports

Pursuant to Decision 18-06-027 and Resolution E-4999 each Program Administrator must file and serve quarterly reports describing the capacity procured, capacity online, and customers subscribed. The reports must also identify DACs in which projects are locate and list the number of participating customers in each DA within each Program Administrator’s service territory. Finally, the quarterly reports must include the number of customers who have successfully enrolled in CARE and FERA in the process of signing up for the DAC-GT program.

Clean Power Alliance

East Bay Community Energy

Marin Clean Energy

PG&E

SCE

SDG&E

San Jose Clean Energy

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