MTI Development

CalMTA has begun to form California’s market transformation portfolio of market transformation initiatives (MTIs) utilizing the recent Request for Ideas.  Assessment and scoring of the 117 submissions resulted in high scoring concepts moving to review and prioritization in collaboration with the Market Transformation Advisory Board (MTAB). This step is represented in Phase 1: Concept Development in the graphic below.

Leading ideas will be grouped in batches and developed into “Advancement Plans,” which represent the work to be done in Phase II: Program Development.

(Click to enlarge)

Development of the batches will be on a staggered schedule throughout 2024 and 2025 and culminate with full MTI Plans, the first of which will be sent for CPUC approval and implementation in Phase III: Market Deployment at the end of 2024. This model supports an MTI from the development of the concept through program development to market deployment and the eventual exiting of the market. For more information, check out our video on the MTI development process.

Batch approach to MTI Plan Development

(Chart is intended to be illustrative. Dates may change slightly. Click to enlarge.)

Process for Reviewing & Scoring Ideas 

CalMTA has developed a multi-stage process to select an initial set of MTIs to submit to the CPUC for approval. The process builds on a two-stage scoring and selection method described in the MT Framework with additional steps to provide clear guidance to submitters and support CalMTA’s portfolio development. The steps are illustrated and summarized below.

Overview of CalMTA scoring and selection 

Self-Screening: Basic guidance in the form of screening questions is provided to the submitter to ensure that their idea fits CalMTA requirements. If the submitter responds “no” to any of the self-screening questions, they are encouraged to further develop their idea before submitting.

Threshold Review: Initial review by CalMTA staff to ensure that basic requirements are met. The primary objective is to confirm that the ideas would save energy and provide enough information to be scored.

Stage 1: An initial pass at the scoring of each idea to provide a basis for ranking the ideas so that only those with the best potential are advanced to Stage 2 scoring. The Stage 1 scores are based on CalMTA staff expertise and judgement, so the Stage 1 scoring can be conducted quickly and with limited investment of resources.

Stage 2: The ideas that advance to Stage 2 are scored with additional rigor around Total Systems Benefit (TSB) and cost-effectiveness potential. The Stage 2 scores are based on preliminary estimates developed using secondary data sources, light research, and energy modelling.

Portfolio Optimization: This comprehensive view of the ideas occurs after Stage 2 scoring to ensure that the set of MTIs eventually selected deliver on desired portfolio characteristics.

Scoring Categories & Criteria 

The scoring categories and the individual criteria within each are presented in the table below. These are the same across Stage 1 and Stage 2 except for the criteria under MTI Cost & Cost-effectiveness. Because the Program Administrator Cost Test (PAC) and Total Resource Cost Test (TRC) are not calculated until Stage 2, the scorers’ assessment of the reasonableness of the participant cost is used in Stage 1.

For full details on the disposition of ideas, read more here.