MONDAY AGGREGATE: Load Growth Caps, PG&E ERRA Compliance; Crimson's 67% Crude Pipeline Rate Hike

February 2026 ended with a bang; many items surfaced late last week and spilled over into Monday. We're getting you caught up on them now.

• DISTRIBUTED ENERGY RESOURCES/LOAD GROWTH: The major electric IOUs submitted filings to address a longstanding tension identified in the High DER proceeding: the CEC's IEPR forecasts are system-level and coincident, while distribution planning is circuit-level and based on non-coincident peaks. Applying system caps directly to circuit forecasts can either distort known load data or suppress near-term distribution upgrade needs. Consequently, all three utilities propose formal adoption of a “Non-Coincident IEPR Cap” methodology that reconciles IEPR system forecasts with bottom-up circuit planning.
• PG&E'S ERRA COMPLIANCE: PG&E's new ERRA compliance filing requests that issues pertaining to the extended operations of Diablo Canyon be excluded from the ERRA venue, arguing those costs are reviewed under a separate statutory framework.
• HYDRO ASSETS: PG&E filed an application seeking approval under the Public Utilities Code to sell its 4.8-MW Hamilton Branch Hydroelectric Project, located near Lake Almanor in Plumas and Lassen Counties, to Hamilton Branch Hydro, LLC. This is a straightforward portfolio exit of a mothballed hydro unit.
• ARTIFICIAL OIL ISLANDS: SCE, THUMS Long Beach Company, and the City of Long Beach recently submitted a Joint Mediation Statement reporting continued progress toward a potential sale of the THUMS Added Facilities from SCE to THUMS. Read our "instant analysis" to understand why this proceeding is not trivial.
• CRUDE OIL TRANSPORTATION: Crimson California Pipeline L.P. filed an application with the CPUC seeking authorization to increase rates on its Southern California crude oil pipeline system by 66.97%, retroactive to April 1, 2026. This is a declining-asset ratemaking case.

Also, please see our standalone summaries from earlier today covering the gas utilities' major infrastructure investments, PG&E's March 1 electric rates filing, and the first real test of the CPUC's narrow exception pathway after it eliminated gas line extension allowances in a 2022 decision (D.22-09-026).