Say goodbye to manual response and extra work. We enable flexible and practical ways to automate Demand Response while still being in control. Automated Demand Response is an easy way to increase energy and cost savings by automating the energy controls of your choice, no matter what industry sector you’re inIf you are interested in learning more about how can benefit from available utility...
Want to Make Energy-Efficient Improvements, but Need Help Financing?
Improving energy efficiency is a goal for virtually all public agencies in California — but many of those same agencies also view installing energy efficient equipment as cost-prohibitive. Want to make energy-efficient improvements, but need help financing? You may qualify for On-Bill Financing Program (OBF) programs, which are offered to most California electricity customers by their local utility and are funded...
Demand Response – Someone Else Will Pay For It! (SPURR DR Series 1 of 3)
Did you know that in many cases you can have Automated Demand Response technology installed at your facilities at no cost to you? If you qualify, you could be set up and ready to enjoy an additional revenue stream for before next summer. For the time being, California utilities are still offering lucrative incentives to cover the cost of installing ADR...
SPURR Winning Solar Vendor Signs Agreements with City of Fresno
The City of Fresno has signed agreements with ForeFront Power, a California-based solar and energy storage developer, to implement renewable energy projects across the city. The city selected ForeFront Power for the projects based on the selection of ForeFront as the winning vendor in SPURR’s Renewable Energy Aggregated Procurement (REAP) Program. The City used the REAP Program to save time and money...
CPUC imposes largest ever penalty of $1.9B on PG&E for Northern California wildfires
The CPUC opened an official investigation into PG&E’s role in sparking wildfires in Northern California in mid-2019, after the agency’s safety division identified numerous instances in which the utility’s operations violated rules and regulations. The fires collectively burned hundreds of thousands of acres and led to 129 fatalities. Read more…
Judge calls PG&E vegetation work ‘sloppy and unreliable,’ imposes new conditions on the utility
Vegetation management is part of wider wildfire mitigation efforts by PG&E. The utility has pushed back on Alsup’s insistence that it provide more details of its plans to expand its vegetation efforts, last month telling the judge it could not commit to contracting a specific number of tree-workers by a future date. Alsup also quizzed PG&E’s lawyers on the utility’s vegetation management...
Webinar: Renewable Energy Foundations
Due to COVID-19, our March 30th workshop at the CASBO conference for K-12 public school district business officials was cancelled. ForeFront Power, SPURR’s winning solar and energy storage vendor, and the SPURR team decided to convert the workshop into a webinar. SPURR Managing Director, Michael Rochman, was a speaker on this webinar. Whether you’re just starting the procurement journey or are...
PG&E to Plead Guilty to Involuntary Manslaughter Charges
While of course the COVID-19 pandemic dominates the news and our time, it’s important not to let energy system information that affects our schools, colleges, and other constituents get lost in the news cycle. Here is one new item we wanted to call to your attention: PG&E to Plead Guilty to Involuntary Manslaughter Charges in Deadly California Wildfire. Paradise Post reports that...
How SPURR is Handling COVID-19
I know you are all extremely busy these days, but I wanted to share brief SPURR updates re COVID-19, for your information. Natural Gas Program We sent out FYE Jun 2021 budgeting updates at the start of this month, based on pricing and regulatory filings through late Feb. That time period now seems like a world away. Natural gas prices,...
Utility Users Tax & Public Agency Accounts
Summary Some California cities and counties (Municipalities) levy Utility Users Taxes (UUT) on “users” of utilities services — such as natural gas, electricity, water, and telecommunications — within their borders.1 UUT is usually collected by the local utility distribution company (Utility) and remitted to the Municipality. In our experience, UUT should not be collected from federal, state, or local public...