A Win for Bioenergy in California

Sep 9

Wisewood Energy was an important voice in the recent regulatory win to extend the BioMAT program through 2025 at the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) - just one of many efforts we are taking to continue moving the dial for other major improvements in the program.

What is BioMAT?

The Bioenergy Market Adjusting Tariff (BioMAT) incentivizes the installation of small-scale bioenergy renewable generators under 5 MW in California. The program was created with the passage of SB 1122 in 2012 and without regulatory action, it was slated to sunset at the end of 2020. With the future of the program hanging on this decision, the market outlook on bioenergy projects was uncertain. While Wisewood consistently advocates for the expansion of bioenergy projects across California, it was especially important to be an active party to the BioMAT proceeding at the CPUC. Not only did we fight for program extension, we also pushed for programmatic changes that provide additional flexibility in the project development process and expand access to program participation across the state.

Including More Program Benefactors

The recent proposal issued by the CPUC Energy Division included a change to the cost allocation method for the program, shifting to a non-bypassable charge on all utility customers. Wisewood Energy supported this change because BioMAT projects provide benefits to all ratepayers, not just Investor-Owned Utility (IOU) bundled customers. We strongly agreed with the Commission that wildfire mitigation, forest health, greenhouse gas emissions reduction, and reaching state-wide clean energy targets are benefits realized by all California ratepayers through the development of appropriately-sized bioenergy projects, and thus, the charges can also be shared by all benefactors.

Expanding Program Reach Beyond IOUs

With this proposed change to cost allocation, staff also advocated for expanding the program to allow all load serving entities (LSEs), such as Community Choice Aggregators, Electric Service Providers and small IOUs, to procure BioMAT power, not just the 3 large IOUs. Wisewood was in strong support of this proposal to make the program more inclusive, advocating that:

“This change would dramatically increase and accelerate project development opportunities across the state by giving LSEs another procurement option that allows them to further diversify their portfolio of energy resources, mitigating risk and expanding the economic benefits more widely. As the utility business model in California continues to evolve, LSEs other than the IOUs will take over more procurement responsibilities, so limiting BioMAT procurement to only the IOUs no longer makes sense”.

The CCAs joined in support of this programmatic change, recognizing opportunities for the new procurement of clean, flexible generation for their own portfolios to better serve their communities.

“As modified, the Proposed Decision will facilitate broader participation in the BioMAT program, including participation from CCAs that have a keen interest in supporting and promoting local bioenergy projects”.

More Policy Work Ahead

The Commission moved ahead with changing the program cost allocation method in the recent Decision. Ultimately however, the CPUC opted not to expand LSE participation to additional entities at this time. Since the enabling legislation SB 1122 specified the BioMAT program was an IOU program, the Commission did not feel it had the legal authority to expand the scope of the program to allow for non-IOU LSEs to procure BioMAT projects.

While this Decision is disappointing, we are excited to see there is validated interest in further expanding the program. Wisewood remains committed to our collaboration with the CPUC, legislature, and stakeholders to advocate for more advantageous changes to BioMAT, including expanding participation eligibility to all LSEs, so that the benefits of bioenergy can be realized by more communities across California.