The California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) unanimously approved extending the deadline of establishing a statewide community solar program for another year during a meeting on December 19.

Prior to the vote, the CPUC was slated to establish the program by January 1, 2025. This included ironing out details of the adopted Community Renewable Energy Program (CREP), modifications to the Disadvantaged Communities Green Tariff Program (DAC-GT), as well as determine how it intends to spend USD 250m Solar for All (SFA) funding.

The CPUC now has until January 1, 2026, to decide.

NPM reached out to CPUC with concerns that the time extension might jeopardize the implementation of SFA funds. The CPUC rebuffed the claim.

“The funds have been awarded to California already but California continues to work with U.S. EPA on details and we have necessary administrative processes to determine implementation details with public input,” said Terrie Prosper, CPUC spokesperson, in a statement to NPM.

“The extension provides time to do that and may not take the whole time provided by the extension,” Prosper said.

NPM then reached out to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), who said the CPUC has not missed any deadlines in implementing SFA funds, noting that a final workplan and budget was already submitted to them by the CPUC.

“CPUC has already submitted their final workplan and budget, which will now undergo review by EPA’s Office of Grants and Debarment. The workplan and budget describe how CPUC plans to spend SFA grant funds,” said EPA spokesperson Robert Daguillard.

NPM again reached out to the CPUC asking for a copy of the final workplan and budget submitted to the EPA as mentioned in their statement.

After 24 hours of no response, NPM sent a formal Public Information Request to obtain the documents on December 17.

The California Public Records Act requires the CPUC to respond within 10 days.

*This story was originally published exclusively for NPM subscribers.

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