From our colleage Seth Hilton:

In 2006, Assembly Bill (AB) 1969 ushered in the era of the Feed In Tariff (FIT) in California. AB 1969 added section 399.20 to the Public Utilities Code, which allowed for tariffs and standardized contracts for eligible renewable resources up to 1.5MW owned by, and located on, public water and wastewater treatment facilities. In 2007, the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) expanded the program to all utility customers. In 2008, Senate Bill (SB) 380 established a standard tariff for all utility customers and applied that tariff to San Diego Gas & Electric (SDG&E) in addition to Pacific Gas & Electric (PG&E) and Southern California Edison (SCE).

Also in 2008, the CPUC adopted the final tariff structure and standardized contracts. The pricing for the tariffs was set at the market price referent (MPR), as adjusted by time of use (TOU) factors. A more detailed description, and the MPR and TOU tables, is available here. The total cap of the program is currently 500MW divided between SCE, PG&E, and SDG&E.

In 2009, SB 32 was signed into law, which, among other things, increased the eligible project size to 3MW. SB 32 went into effect on January 1, 2010. However, the CPUC has not yet fully implemented these amendments to the FIT program.

On January 27, 2011, Administrative Law Judge (ALJ) Anne E. Simon released a ruling setting the briefing schedule in response to the CPUC’s implementation of SB 32. The ruling states that respondents must, and other parties may, file briefs on such issues as eligibility, program size and requirements, and the setting of the tariff price, or any other issue they believe to be “relevant to the Commission’s implementation of SB 32.”

ALJ Simon’s ruling further stated that parties may also file, as a separate action in their brief, a request for any “further activities” they believe should be conducted (i.e., workshops, hearings, etc.).

Filed briefs must be no more than 50 pages and must be filed and served by respondents, and may be filed and served by other parties, no later than March 4, 2011. Reply briefs, which can be no more than 25 pages, must be filed by served no later than March 22, 2011.