Clean Energy Optimization Pilot Final Report and Year 4 Annual Report

The Clean Energy Optimization Pilot (CEOP) was authorized in 2019 by the California Public Utilities Commission. CEOP was designed to incentivize seven participating university campuses to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions through performance payments calculated based on electric and gas meter data. Seven campus locations were strategically selected to participate in the Pilot, including: University of California (UC) Davis Veterinarian Medical Center (UC Vet Med Center), UC Irvine Medical Center, UC Irvine, UCLA Medical Center-Santa Monica, UC Santa Barbara, California State University (CSU) Dominguez Hills and California State Polytechnic University Pomona (Cal Poly Pomona). The CEOP ran for four years and ended September 2024, including a hiatus due to the COVID-19 stay-at-home order. Pilot Participants have saved over 221,000 metric tons of carbon dioxide (MT CO2 ) of lifetime GHG emissions, and SCE has paid Participants $18.1 million 1 of performance payments in four years of the Pilot. These results are 27% greater than forecasted for GHG emissions reductions, exhausting all funds allocated for performance payments. This program design has resulted in an 8.7% reduction in GHG emissions across all participating campuses and could be very impactful if implemented at similarly situated customers, such as other colleges or universities and other campus-based commercial customers throughout the state. This evaluation report included three key items (1) quantitative analysis (to estimate GHG emissions reduction and other associate benefits/impacts), (2) qualitative analysis (to assess participant feedback), and (3) performance payment verification. The evaluation showed that the total pilot first-year emissions reduction as evaluated is 29,677 MT CO2, which is 29% greater than the 22,921 MT CO2 as calculated in the CEOP performance payment tool. Additionally, the evaluation showed that the total program was cost-effective. The Total Resource Cost (TRC) test was 1.09 for years 1-4 (1.34 excluding Pilot Year 4) and the Program Administrator Cost (PAC) test was 4.26 for year 1-4 (4.34 excluding Pilot Year 4). The qualitative analysis showed that campuses pursued a variety of GHG emissions reducing measures, accelerated GHG emissions reduction projects, were influenced by the performance payments, and were pleased with the program design.