Energy use naturally reaches peak levels during the warm summer months. This increased demand can cause power shortages and higher energy bills for Southern California Edison customers. Reducing energy load during this critical peak period is key to avoiding blackouts, saving money and lowering greenhouse gas emissions.

SCE’s Demand Bidding Program is an Internet-based bidding program that offers qualified participants (who have at least one service account with a demand of 200 kilowatts [kW] or greater) the opportunity to receive bill credits for voluntarily reducing load when a DBP event is called. The Demand Bidding Program is a flexible program where customers pay no penalty if they are unable to meet their energy reduction bid. Customers can sign up individually or as an aggregated group.

How the Program Works

Participants place bids online the day before the event or ensure they have a standing bid in place for the amount of power they are willing to reduce in increments of 2 hours or more. DBP events usually take place from Noon to 8:00 p.m. and can occur on any weekday excluding holidays.

When and How DBP is called:

• Day-Ahead Product: DBP day-ahead events are called at SCE’s discretion when needed. You will be notified by Noon the day prior to the event by phone, email, or fax.
• Day-Of Product: DBP day-of events are called when the CAISO issues a Stage 1 emergency. You will be notified by 6:00 p.m. on the day of the event.

Bidding Details:

• Bids for power reductions are accepted the day before the actual day-ahead DBP events.
• Standing bids are used for day-of events.
• You can enter a standing bid that will automatically be entered for each DBP event instead of logging on to bid for each event separately.
• You may vary your energy bid commitment by hour for each DBP event; however, you must bid in at least two consecutive hours for an event.
• You can enter bids on SCE’s designated internet DBP website.

What You'll Receive:

With DBP, you will receive substantial bill credits for participating based on whether the event is a day-ahead event or a day-of event. You are eligible for credits for reductions from 50% to 200% of your committed power reduction amount. You will not receive credits for any power reductions greater than 200% or less than 50% of your committed power reduction. These thresholds are measured each hour of a DBP event.

Day-Of Events:

• Bundled service customers are eligible to receive a bill credit of 60 cents per kWh of actual power reduction.
• Direct access customers are eligible to receive a bill credit of 60 cents per kWh of actual power reduction minus the CAISO’s hourly average energy price at which excess energy can be sold back into the power system (ex-post price).

Day-Ahead Events:

• Bundled service customers are eligible to receive a bill credit of 50 cents per kWh of actual power reduction.
• Direct access customers are eligible to receive a bill credit of 50 cents per kWh of actual power reduction minus the CAISO’s hourly average energy price at which excess energy can be sold back into the power system (ex-post price).

Determining Actual Reduced Energy:

• SCE determines the amount of energy you actually reduce in each hour of a DBP event by comparing the load during the event to either your Customer Specific Energy Baseline (CSEB) (for customers directly enrolled) or your Aggregated Group Energy Baseline (AGEB) (for load nominated by aggregators), whichever is applicable.
• SCE employs the “10-Day Rolling Average” energy use methodology to calculate CSEB and AGEB baselines by taking the average energy usage for the three highest energy use days of the immediate past 10 weekdays prior to a DBP event, excluding holidays, DBP event days, or days when customers were subject to a rotating outage.

Who Can Participate

DBP is open to all business customers who meet the following conditions:

• Rely on SCE for generation, transmission, and distribution of electric service (bundled service customers) or are a Direct Access customer.
• Must have at least one service account with a demand of 200 kW or greater in any 3 months during the past year.
• Are not enrolled on a real time pricing schedule.
• Are not enrolled in the Capacity Bidding Program (CBP).
• Are not enrolled in any of the CAISO’s Ancillary Services or Demand Response programs.

What Is Needed

To participate in the DBP, your facility(ies) must be equipped with:

• An SCE-approved communicating interval metering system capable of recording usage in 15-minute intervals. Customers with load greater than 200 kW should already have the correct metering; customers with demand ranging from 50 kW to 200 kW