CLIMATE ADAPTATION

EPIC Plans will seek to identify cost-effective, targeted research opportunities for improving grid resiliency and stability, particularly for adaptability of and impacts on ESJ and tribal communities during severe weather events, including preventing and mitigating the effects of wildfires, floods, and other climate-driven events; hardening the grid and improving resiliency especially in the most remote grid edge locations; reducing the number of customers experiencing long-duration outages; and reducing the duration of these outages, by addressing identified gaps for this goal.

TRANSPORTATION ELECTRIFICATION

The Electric Program Investment Charge (EPIC) Program will invest in research, development, and demonstration (RD&D) that supports the planning, integration, scaling, and commercialization of innovation that promotes the state's climate goals to: (1) transition all medium- and heavy-duty vehicles in the state to zero-emission vehicles (ZEV) by 2045; (2) realize 100 percent ZEV instate new car sales by 2035; and (3) significantly reduce pollution from the transportation sector in disadvantaged, low-income, Environmental and Social Justice (ESJ), and tribal communities, and Environmental Protection Agency non-attainment air districts as soon as possible, by addressing identified gaps for this goal.

DISTRIBUTED ENERGY RESOURCE INTEGRATION

EPIC will invest in the cost-effective integration of high penetrations of distributed energy resources to support the state's goal to achieve a renewable and zero-carbon power sector by 2045, in part by building on the state's goal to deploy 7,000 megawatts of flexible load by 2030, by addressing identified gaps for this goal.

BUILDING DECARBONIZATION

EPIC will invest in the rapid acceleration of comprehensive, cost-effective, and equitable building decarbonization technologies and strategies to help achieve the state's goal to be carbon neutral by 2045 economy-wide, including achieving and sustaining a three percent annual building electrification retrofit rate (3.6 percent for affordable housing) by and beyond 2030, by addressing identified gaps for this goal.

ACHIEVING 100 PERCENT NET-ZERO CARBON EMISSIONS AND THE COORDINATED ROLE OF GAS

EPIC will seek to identify cost-effective opportunities for reaching the "last 10%"" of the state's goal to be carbon neutral by 2045 economy-wide, through investment in California-specific strategies for hard-to-decarbonize energy-consuming sectors that could be decarbonized through electrification and coordination with other California RD&D programs to align investments and activities for emerging strategies, by addressing identified gaps for this goal.

1

Reducing Medium and Heavy-Duty Vehicle Charging Infrastructure Costs
The EPIC program will accelerate innovation, demonstration, and innovative approaches to deployment that support the reduction of the IOU cost of medium- and heavy-duty charging infrastructure installations, and associated IOU cost of grid upgrades by a stretch goal of 50% by 2035 to achieve the state’s transportation electrification goals in a cost-effective manner.

Strategic Goals addressed: Transportation Electrification

2

Overcoming Barriers to EV Benefits in DVCs
The EPIC program will accelerate innovation, demonstration, and innovative approaches to deployment to overcome obstacles to equitable transportation electrification benefits (including alleviation of pollution, bridging transportation access, and addressing energy burden) in Disadvantaged and Vulnerable Communities, lowincome communities, and non-attainment air districts.

Strategic Goals addressed: Transportation Electrification

3

Smart Planning Tools for New Load and Clean Resources
The EPIC program will support the development, integration, and updating of transparent, open-access grid planning tools that a) substantially increase the forecasting and predictability of intermittent resources, electric vehicles, building electrification, flexible load, and distributed energy resources, b) enable widespread adoption of demand flexibility, c) provide transparent and coordinated inputs into utility capital planning processes, and/or d) inform utility operations for the enablement of grid services and dynamic operation with the goal of reducing ratepayer costs over time and ensuring Disadvantaged and Vulnerable Communities are not left behind in benefits from the transition to zero-emission technologies.

Strategic Goals addressed: Transportation Electrification Building Decarbonization Achieving 100% Net-Zero Carbon

4

Reducing Cost of Whole Home Electrification
The EPIC program will accelerate innovation, demonstration, and reliable and scalable approaches to deployment that help reduce the all-in cost of whole-home electrification and enable demand flexibility / automated response to process signals or dynamic rates for single-family and multi-family buildings and manufactured housing by 50%, while decreasing residents’ energy costs, by 2035.

Strategic Goals addressed: Building Decarbonization

5

Innovative Approaches for Difficult-to-Decarbonize Sectors
The EPIC program will accelerate innovative approaches, strategies, and business models to achieve lifecycle cost-parity for difficult-to-decarbonize commercial and industrial buildings and processes, with a specific focus on strategies that lead to the reduction of NOx, PM, and other surface-level pollutants impacting Disadvantaged and Vulnerable Communities.

Strategic Goals addressed: Building Decarbonization Achieving 100% Net-Zero Carbon

6

Community-Scale Decarbonization
The Strategic Objective for EPIC that the program demonstrates technology, tools, deployment strategies, planning approaches and business models for achieving (100 percent) neighborhood-or community-scale electrification that considers the needs of participating and non-participating customers, and with a prioritization on addressing needs and obstacles of Disadvantaged and Vulnerable Communities.

Strategic Goals addressed: Building Decarbonization Achieving 100% Net-Zero Carbon Transportation Electrification DER Integration Climate Adaptation

7

Impacts Research for New Generation and Storage
The EPIC program will conduct new lifecycle and techno-economic analysis, as needed, to identify the emerging zero-carbon technologies with the lowest adverse and highest beneficial economic, land, air, water, net energy, health, and safety impacts on California communities, including DVCs.

Strategic Goals addressed: Achieving 100% Net-Zero Carbon DER Integration

8

Increase Predictability of Weather Impact on, Intermittent Resources, Climate Risks, and Load
By 2030, the EPIC program will conduct data analysis and develop and/or advance data resources, modeling tools, and technologies to measurably improve: a) predictions to electric system operational climate risk; b) intermittent electric resource supply forecasts and electricity demand forecasts under climate uncertainty; c) open-access data on grid equipment condition and capability; and d) coordination between weather and climate observation/projections, forecasting, and grid operations.

Strategic Goals addressed: Achieving 100% Net-Zero Carbon DER Integration Building Decarbonization Transportation Electrification Climate Adaptation

9

Leveraging DERs for Grid and Community Resiliency
The EPIC Program will support technology development, innovative deployment models, and real-world testing and evaluation for the demonstration of the use of clean distributed energy resources to reduce the impact of outage events, through strategies that allow critical and/or essential loads and services to remain powered through such events and that reduce power restoration time for vulnerable populations, with a specific focus on solving challenges related to critical loads and services identified by Disadvantaged and Vulnerable Communities as critical community resilience needs.

Strategic Goals addressed: DER Integration Building Decarbonization Transportation Electrification Climate Adaptation

10

Expediting and Streamlining Interconnection and Energization Processes
The EPIC Program will support acceleration of the development, testing, and integration of innovative technology, communication protocols, and modeling approaches to streamlining interconnection and energization processes for DER and new load including electric vehicle charging infrastructure, with a goal to demonstrate the capability to significantly reduce interconnection and energization approval or online timelines under multiple high DER penetration and electrification scenarios, with a priority for addressing challenges in Disadvantaged and Vulnerable Communities.

Strategic Goals addressed: DER Integration Transportation Electrification

11

Providing Data Input into a Value of DER Framework
The EPIC Program will conduct analysis, real-world demonstrations, and data collection to support the development and ongoing update of an evidence-based framework for the location-, time-, and performance-based values of grid services that are a) usable by grid operators to reduce costs to ratepayers and expand opportunities for distributed zero-emission technologies, and b) accessible by any DER, electric vehicle, or flexible load.

Strategic Goals addressed: DER Integration Building Decarbonization Transportation Electrification

12

Optimizing Feeder / Circuit Operations
To support ratepayer affordability, the EPIC Program will accelerate innovation, demonstration, and deployment of innovative and replicable methods to increase the capacity utilization rate of circuits/feeders and reduce circuit and feeder peak loads, and/or dynamically optimize other feeder/circuit operations in order to avoid or defer costly grid upgrades, through the coordination of DERs, EVs, flexible load, and grid intelligence, with a focus on circuits serving Disadvantaged and Vulnerable Communities where increased adoption of zero-emission technologies can increase equitable benefits.

Strategic Goals addressed: DER Integration Building Decarbonization Transportation Electrification Achieving 100% Net-Zero Carbon

13

Cost-Effective Grid Hardening for Long-Term Climate Impact
By 2033, the EPIC program will develop and demonstrate data, tools, technologies, and frameworks that improve long-term planning and achieve more cost-effective operational practices and capital investments for grid hardening to maintain grid resilience and reliability to long-term climate impacts, with a focus on increasing affordability, reducing outage risk, and reducing social burdens of outages.

Strategic Goals addressed: Climate Adaptation Building Decarbonization Transportation Electrification