California

California budget cuts could decimate key virtual power plant programs

Published

2 years ago

June 5, 2024

California budget cuts could decimate key virtual power plant programs

This has made the DSGS program a key target for VPP developers in California, with $295 million budgeted for participants in 2022 and 2023. About 1,300 participants in DSGS-funded programs were able to reduce peak load by about 315 megawatts and provide more than 3,100 megawatt-hours of emergency response during hot summer weather in the summer of 2022, according to the companies that signed on to the protest letter to state lawmakers. Those companies have planned to “provide much more emergency capacity in the summer of 2024.”

“This newly expanded and re-designed program was finally launching for a full summer in 2024,” Perez of Advanced Energy United told Canary Media in an email. But the proposed budget cuts would eliminate $186.5 million in DSGS funding through this year and next, leaving only $75 million deferred to 2025 and 2026, according to industry groups tracking the latest budget figures. That would “severely impact” participating companies’ efforts, since they “need to have predictability to invest in market development, customer onboarding, and program setup,” the letter stated.

“If the proposed reductions go through, I don’t know how that will affect new and current participants,” said Cisco DeVries, executive vice president of Renew Home, the company formed by the merger of Google Nest’s smart thermostat energy-shifting service Nest Renew and California-based residential demand response aggregator Ohmconnect. Renew Home works with hundreds of thousands of households in California and participated in the DSGS program in 2022 and 2023.

The potential for VPPs in California is particularly strong, given the state’s preponderance of homes equipped with rooftop solar, backup batteries, smart thermostats, and electric vehicle chargers. In an April report, consultancy Brattle Group projected that VPPs could enable $550 million per year in consumer savings in California and provide in excess of 15 percent of the state’s peak grid demand by 2035.

Jigar Shah, head of the U.S. Department of Energy’s Loan Programs Office, which has issued billions of dollars in loan guarantees to support VPP deployments, highlighted that report in an April social media post, citing it as evidence that VPPs are the “lowest cost way” for utilities and regulators “to handle load growth and lower rates for everyone.”

But with the future of the DSGS program now very much in doubt, it’s unclear how California utility regulators and policymakers will enable that potential, DeVries said. “A big part of how we were going to figure out the next phase of demand response and virtual power plants in the state of California was the CEC programs, both DSGS and others,” he said. “So now we’re back to the drawing board. We don’t have the answers to what’s going to happen next.”

That’s a problem for a state that’s simultaneously trying to control electric utility rates that are among the highest and the fastest-rising in the country, keep the lights on during stressful grid events, and “retire a bunch of dirty old fossil fuel plants,” he said.

The missing money for alternatives to fossil fuels

To date, the lion’s share of California’s emergency-grid-support funds has gone toward extending the lifespan of its fossil fuel plants. The state has already spent about $426 million from those emergency programs to build or procure “emergency and temporary” power generators that burn fossil gas or diesel fuel, according to a May report from the state Department of Water Resources, which administers that program.

Another $1.3 billion in funding has been promised to companies that own and operate aging fossil-gas-fired “peaker” power plants in Southern California that were slated to be closed in 2020 under environmental regulations. Those plants are a particularly egregious target for state funding, environmental advocates said, given that they burden surrounding communities with harmful air pollution, and have been unprofitable to operate absent state subsidies.

What’s more, these power plants take days to ramp up in advance of predicted grid emergencies and are much more expensive than the capacity that can be enlisted through the DSGS program, which consists of customers that can almost instantaneously reduce power use or commit battery power to helping the grid, Perez said.

The proposed cuts to DSGS and DEBA aren’t the only state funds for cleaner alternatives that might fail to materialize. Part of the emergency plan laid out in 2022 called for directing $900 million to incentives to fund battery installations in lower-income and disadvantaged communities. But only $280 million of that has been set aside in the state budget.

“To maintain commitments to fossil fuel resources and cut back on deployment of new resources — clean resources that could be used for emergencies — is short-term thinking and just seems kind of backwards,” said Ed Smeloff, managing director of the regulatory team at nonprofit group Vote Solar. “It’s important to have strategic reserves for the future, because we are going to have extreme weather events. That’s a fact of life. But those reserves should be compatible with the state’s clean energy policies.”

It’s possible that state leaders aim to instead rely on the larger amount of utility-scale batteries to solve California’s grid problems, Smeloff said. In April, Newsom announced that California has deployed 10 gigawatts of installed battery capacity, a 13-fold increase from five years ago, and enough to meet about 20 percent of the peak electricity demand for the grid managed by the California Independent System Operator (CAISO).

But it’s not clear that California can continue that breakneck pace of utility-scale battery expansion in the face of its crowded transmission-grid interconnection queues, Smeloff said. Nor is relying on large-scale batteries alone the most cost-effective path for the state. A 2020 report from Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory found that smarter utilization of demand-side resources could replace the need for billions of dollars’ worth of batteries and other utility-scale resources.

At the same time, California residents are being encouraged by state clean energy and climate policies to buy electric appliances, heat pumps, and EVs as rising electric rates make them more costly to operate, he said. Finding some way for those customers to earn money for programming those devices to relieve grid peaks is a vital counterbalance to the higher electric bills they’ll face as they electrify.

It’s also likely that state leaders believe that the grid emergencies of 2020 and 2022 aren’t as dire today, Smeloff said. An assessment from CAISO last month indicates that the state has a surplus of resources to meet expected peak grid demands this summer, he noted — a stronger position, at least on paper, than the state has had in years.

But as McMahon of the California Energy Storage Association noted, “We had a mild summer last year. But what happens the year after that if we haven’t planned for it?”

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California

‘Not a done deal’: California vows ‘vigorous’ review of Paramount-Warner Bros takeover

Published

10 hours ago

February 27, 2026

Press Room

‘Not a done deal’: California vows ‘vigorous’ review of Paramount-Warner Bros takeover

Rob Bonta, California’s attorney general, said his office will investigate a possible merger between Paramount Skydance and Warner Bros Discovery, hours after Netflix backed away from a planned takeover.

“Paramount/Warner Bros is not a done deal,” Bonta said in a post on X. “These two Hollywood titans have not cleared regulatory scrutiny — the California Department of Justice has an open investigation, and we intend to be vigorous in our review.”

Any acquisition of Warner Bros would require approval from regulators in the United States and Europe, including the US justice department’s antitrust division. The deal Paramount struck for Warner is valued at nearly $111bn.

The merger poses a risk for California’s economy. Paramount’s bid is likely to raise concerns about job cuts in the state, which also dogged Netflix’s bid. Paramount sees $6bn in cost “synergies” in the deal, which typically means massive layoffs, reducing the number of suppliers, squeezing existing contractors for better terms after the two companies merge or other reductions.

The chief executive of Paramount, David Ellison, said his company was pleased the Warner Bros board had “unanimously affirmed the superior value of our offer”, which he said delivered “WBD shareholders superior value, certainty and speed to closing”. Ellison is the son of Oracle co-founder Larry Ellison, a close ally of Donald Trump.

On Friday, Warner Bros Discovery reportedly agreed to be acquired by Paramount Skydance. Reuters and Deadline reported that the deal was announced in a global town hall by the company. Paramount and Warner Bros did not immediately confirm the deal to the Guardian.

A merger between the two media giants is also facing backlash from several lawmakers. Senator Elizabeth Warren, a key voice against growing monopolies, echoed Bonta’s concerns after Netflix walked away from the deal on Thursday, and noted that Netflix CEO Ted Sarandos was seen at the White House shortly before the company said it would bow out of the deal.

“A Paramount Skydance-Warner Bros merger is an antitrust disaster threatening higher prices and fewer choices for American families,” Warren said in a statement. “What did Trump officials tell the Netflix CEO today at the White House? A handful of Trump-aligned billionaires are trying to seize control of what you watch and charge you whatever price they want.”

The senator added: “With the cloud of corruption looming over Trump’s Department of Justice, it’ll be up to the American people to speak up and state attorneys general to enforce the law.”

On Friday, Bonta responded to concerns about the merger posted by actor Mark Ruffalo.

“Please let’s circle up all the State AG’s and talk about how this is going to kill completion in the industry and drive down wages, and product quality for consumers,” Ruffalo posted.

“There are lots of agents in Hollywood who can tell you how past mergers and consolidations have hurt their clients and business. There is lots of talent that can tell you the same.”

Bonta reposted the actor’s comments, responding that he is in “conversation with my AG colleagues about Paramount/Warner Bros”.

The California department of justice did not immediately respond to a request for comment from the Guardian.

The Writers Guild of America, the union representing thousands of television and film writers along with other media workers, has said a Paramount takeover of Warner Bros would hurt jobs.

Warner Bros canceled $2bn in content after merging with Discovery in 2022, and Paramount’s recent merger with Skydance led to 1,000 layoffs, the union said in written testimony to the US Senate.

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California

Amid angry backlash, serial child molester is rearrested the same day he was set to be paroled

Published

22 hours ago

February 27, 2026

Press Room

Amid angry backlash, serial child molester is rearrested the same day he was set to be paroled

Following major backlash about the scheduled release of a serial child molester through California’s elderly parole program, the 64-year-old is now facing new charges that could keep him behind bars.

News that David Allen Funston was set to be freed was met by outrage among victims, politicians and others. The former Sacramento County district attorney who prosecuted Funston said she was strongly opposed to his release: “This is one I’m screaming about.”

Funston, granted parole earlier this month, was set to be released on Thursday from state prison — but was rearrested that same day on new charges from a decades-old, untried case. The charges he’s facing are from a 1996 case in which he is accused of sexually assaulting a child in Roseville, according to the Placer County district attorney’s office.

In 1999, he was convicted of 16 counts of kidnapping and child molestation and had been serving three consecutive sentences of 25 years to life and one sentence of 20 years and eight months at the California Institution for Men in Chino. The sentences followed a string of cases out of Sacramento County in which prosecutors said Funston lured children under the age of 7 with candy and, in at least one case, a Barbie doll to kidnap and sexually assault them, often under the threat of violence.

He was described by a judge at his sentencing hearing as “the monster parents fear the most.”

Prosecutors in Placer County, at the time, decided not to pursue the case against Funston in Roseville given the severity of the sentences he received in Sacramento County.

But given his scheduled release from state prison, prosecutors decided to file new charges against him. Placer County Dist. Atty. Morgan Gire said “changes in state law and recent parole board failures” led to his improper release.

“This individual was previously sentenced to multiple life terms for extremely heinous crimes,” Gire said in a statement. “When changes in the law put our communities at risk, it is our duty to re-evaluate those cases and act accordingly. David Allen Funston committed very real crimes against a Placer County child, and the statute of limitations allows us to hold him accountable for those crimes.”

He is now being held without bail in the Placer County jail, booked on suspicion of lewd and lascivious acts against a child, according to prosecutors. Funston’s attorney, Maya Emig, said she had only recently learned about his arrest and hadn’t yet had time to fully review the matter.

But she noted that she believes “in the justice system and the rule of law.”

Emig called the Board of Parole Hearings’ decision to grant Funston elderly parole “lawful and just.”

California’s elderly parole program generally considers the release of prisoners who are older than 50 and have been incarcerated for at least 20 continuous years, considering whether someone poses an unreasonable risk to public safety.

In Funston’s case, commissioners said they did not believe Funston posed a significant danger because of the extensive self-help, therapy work and sex offender treatment classes he completed, as well as his detailed plan to avoid repeating his crimes, the remorse he expressed and his track record of good behavior in prison, according to a transcript from the Sept. 24 hearing.

At the hearing, Funston called himself a “selfish coward” for victimizing young children, and said he was “disgusted and ashamed of my behavior and have great remorse for the harm I caused my victims, their families in the community of Sacramento.”

“I’m truly sorry,” he said.

But victims of his crimes, as well as prosecutors and elected leaders have questioned the parole decision and called for its reversal.

“He’s one sick individual,” a victim of Funston’s violence told The Times. “What if he gets out and and tries to find his old victims and wants to kill us?”

A spokesperson for Gov. Gavin Newsom said the governor also did not agree with Funston’s release and had asked the board to review the case. However, Newsom has no authority to overturn the parole decision.

Some state lawmakers also cited Funston’s case as evidence that California’s elderly parole program needs reform, recently introducing a bill that would exclude people convicted of sexual crimes from being considered by the process.

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