> ## Content Index > Fetch the complete content index at: https://www.calregulatory.com/llms.txt > Use this file to discover other available public pages before exploring further. # TUESDAY BRIEFING: SoCalGas’s $348M Tech Ask and the CPUC’s Clean Miles Retreat - URL: https://www.calregulatory.com/tuesday-briefing-socalgass-348m-tech-ask-and-the-cpucs-clean-miles-retreat/ - Published: 2026-07-28T12:30:46.000Z - Updated: 2026-08-23T00:05:59.000Z - Author: MC - Tags: Clean Miles Standard, Modesto Irrigation District, GCIM, Gas Cost Incentive Mechanism, Contra Costa Water District Tuesday's briefing examines four recent CPUC applications that SoCalGas filed outside its General Rate Case. The largest is a **$348.1 million** joint request with SDG&E to move a shared SAP platform off software that loses vendor support at the end of 2027\. The other three cover shareholder rewards under the Gas Cost Incentive Mechanism, allowances for seven gas-line connections, and a memorandum account for anticipated Olympics costs. Elsewhere, Commissioner **Christine Harada** issued a proposed decision that would close the second phase of the CPUC's Clean Miles Standard without penalties for transportation network companies that miss the state's greenhouse gas and electric-vehicle mileage targets. The PD calls enforcement premature and defers the question to a later record. Last, PG&E and Modesto Irrigation District are seeking CPUC approval of a 25-year agreement continuing the electric service-territory pact that governed the utilities from 2001 through 2025\. --- ### SOCALGAS RATES SoCalGas has four recent applications before the CPUC that address costs and credits outside its General Rate Case, which CRI has analyzed [here](https://www.calregulatory.com/saturday-briefing-socalgas-seeks-14-8-bts-rate-increase-as-southern-system-faces-supply-deficit/) and[ here](https://www.calregulatory.com/intervenors-zero-in-on-socalgass-gas-transition-bet-in-2028-rate-case/). The largest non-GRC filing is a [joint SoCalGas/SDG&E request](https://www.socalgas.com/sites/default/files/2026-05/SCG-SDGE-Application-SAP-Migration-Program.pdf?ref=calregulatory.com), filed in May, to recover **$348.1 million** to move the utilities' shared SAP enterprise platform and connected systems off software that loses vendor support at the end of 2027\. The work involves **$286.1 million** in capital costs and **$62 million** in O&M expenses, spread across 2026-2030\. The peak-year impact on an average SoCalGas residential bill would be about **$0.40** a month, or **0.6%**. The other applications are routine or one-time filings. - **SHAREHOLDER REWARDS:** SoCalGas's [Gas Cost Incentive Mechanism (GCIM) filing](https://www.socalgas.com/sites/default/files/2026-06/A.26-06-SCG-GCIM-Year-32-PDFA.pdf?ref=calregulatory.com), filed last month, reports that the company bought gas for core customers at **$46.4 million** below benchmark in the year ending March 31, 2026, which saved customers **$37.4 million**. Consequently, SoCalGas requests about **$9 million** in shareholder rewards, pursuant to the GCIM formula. - **GAS-LINE EXTENSION:** SoCalGas's [gas-line-extension application](https://www.socalgas.com/sites/default/files/2026-07/A.26-07-003%5FSCG%5FApplication%5FGLEA.pdf?ref=calregulatory.com), filed on July 1, seeks approximately **$5.3 million** in allowances for six Renewable Natural Gas refueling stations and one beverage manufacturer. It also requests an **$11.9 million** lifetime revenue requirement that peaks in 2032, when the residential bill impact would be about **four hundredths of a cent** per month. - **OLYMPICS MEMORANDUM ACCOUNT**: Last, SoCalGas [has requested an interest-bearing memorandum account](https://docs.cpuc.ca.gov/PublishedDocs/Efile/G000/M612/K426/612426485.PDF?ref=calregulatory.com) (A.26-07-014, filed July 27) to record an estimated **$8.2 million**. The amount represents incremental costs SoCalGas expects to incur from Q3 2026 through the close of the 2028 Olympic and Paralympic Games. The company seeks no recovery now; any recorded costs would undergo a later reasonableness review before entering rates. **INSTANT ANALYSIS**: The SAP application seeks approval of a necessary but costly technology replacement on a deadline: vendor support ends in 2027, while the $348.1 million program runs through 2030\. Because $286.1 million is capitalized and recovered over time, the gross project cost translates into a comparatively modest peak residential increase of 0.6%. The GCIM application is retrospective. SoCalGas beat the designated procurement benchmark by $46.4 million and, under the existing formula, customers receive $37.4 million of the benefit while shareholders receive nearly $9 million. The CPUC is simply being asked to verify the calculation and approve the resulting reward. The gas-line application would socialize part of the connection costs for seven projects that SoCalGas says satisfy the CPUC’s exceptions to its general elimination of gas-line allowances. The residential impact is negligible, but the policy question is whether existing customers should finance new gas connections (even for RNG and industrial projects) as the state seeks to reduce long-term gas use. The Olympics application would not put costs into rates now. It would allow SoCalGas to begin recording an estimated $8.2 million while security, access and operating requirements remain unsettled, preserving the utility’s ability to seek recovery later. Approval would therefore postpone the main dispute—whether the recorded work was genuinely incremental and reasonable—until after much of the money has been spent. Put the four together and a pattern emerges. One application concerns real money (SAP), one returns money (GCIM), another sets up a small future charge (gas-line), and the other one holds a place for a charge that does not yet exist (Olympics). --- ### TRANSPORTATION NETWORK COMPANIES/ZEV POLICY Commissioner **Christine Harada** issued a [proposed decision](https://docs.cpuc.ca.gov/PublishedDocs/Efile/G000/M611/K619/611619446.PDF?ref=calregulatory.com) that would finish the second phase of the CPUC's [Clean Miles Standard](https://www.cpuc.ca.gov/regulatory-services/licensing/transportation-licensing-and-analysis-branch/transportation-network-companies/clean-miles-standard?ref=calregulatory.com) program without penalties for transportation network companies that miss the state's annual greenhouse gas and electric-vehicle mileage targets. The PD calls enforcement premature, citing barriers raised by Uber and Lyft and a [June 24 CPUC staff report](https://www.cpuc.ca.gov/-/media/cpuc-website/divisions/consumer-protection-and-enforcement-division/documents/tlab/clean-miles-standard/cms-unanticipated-barriers-progress-report-june-2026.pdf?ref=calregulatory.com): limited charging and federal rollbacks of electric-vehicle policy. The Commission could revisit penalties on a later record. The PD keeps full program exemptions for CPUC-authorized autonomous-vehicle services and for trips run under charter-party authority, including qualifying [UberBlack](https://www.uber.com/us/en/ride/uberblack/?ref=calregulatory.com) rides. It would let low- and moderate-income drivers spend part of their existing purchase incentive on renting a ZEV, with the rental amount (up to $100 a week for up to four weeks, and no less than two weeks) copied from a [Massachusetts program](https://ridecleanmass.org/about/?ref=calregulatory.com). Drivers could claim the incentives only once, for their first switch from gas to electric. Uber, Lyft and HopSkipDrive could require drivers to use cleaner vehicles after giving six months' notice, and could earn optional emissions credits for funding bike and pedestrian projects or transit-connected trips. The earliest the CPUC will consider this item is **September 3**. Comments are due **August 11**. **INSTANT ANALYSIS:** The PD keeps the Clean Miles Standard's frame intact while conceding its targets may not be enforceable yet. Rather than expose Uber, Lyft and HopSkipDrive to penalties for vehicle choices their independent drivers make, the PD weighs staff's June finding and opts to defer. That leaves near-term compliance unresolved as the rulemaking closes. The autonomous-vehicle exemption splits the market in two. Driverless fleets like Waymo's pay no regulatory fee and file no emissions plans or data, while platforms running personally owned vehicles stay in the program and may face enforcement later. The PD reasons that autonomous fleets already run mostly zero-emission and need no driver-transition aid. The exemption grows in weight as those services take more of the market. --- ### PG&E SERVICE TERRITORY PG&E and [Modesto Irrigation District](https://www.mid.org/?ref=calregulatory.com) (MID) filed an [application](https://docs.cpuc.ca.gov/PublishedDocs/Efile/G000/M612/K212/612212892.PDF?ref=calregulatory.com) asking the CPUC to approve a 25-year agreement continuing the electric service-territory division that state law set for 2001 through 2025\. PG&E stays barred from serving retail customers in MID's traditional area and the city of Mountain House. Both utilities keep the right to serve the Four Cities zone (Escalon, Oakdale, Riverbank and Ripon), while MID may not serve retail load elsewhere in PG&E territory. The agreement makes two changes. - It doubles the power MID may sell [Contra Costa Water District](https://www.ccwater.com/?ref=calregulatory.com), from 8 MW to **16 MW**, for existing intake and pumping sites, a new pumping plant and fleet electrification. - It also updates language to reflect Mountain House's incorporation as a city. The applicants say the deal avoids duplicate infrastructure, added cost and renewed territory fights, and creates no revenue requirement. **INSTANT ANALYSIS**: The filing preserves the existing PG&E–MID territory split, avoiding renewed disputes over where each utility may serve customers. The Legislature established that division in 2000 after years of litigation and CPUC proceedings between the utilities. The application’s one substantive change doubles MID’s authorized sales to Contra Costa Water District, from 8 MW to 16 MW, for additional water-pumping infrastructure and fleet electrification.