Demand Response Auction Mechanism (DRAM)

Overview

The California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC or the Commission) approved SDG&E, and other Investor Owned Utilities (IOUs), to offer a two-year DRAM pilot to the third-party aggregators to participate directly in the California Independent Operator System (CAISO) market comprising customers in the SDG&E’s service territory.  Later the Commission issued decision D.16-06-029 and D.17-10-017 to extend the DRAM pilot into 2018 and 2019, and then issued decision D.19-07-009 to extend the DRAM pilot through 2023 and D.19-12-040 to further refine the DRAM. Any SDG&E customer, whether they receive commodity service from SDG&E or another Energy Service Provider, is eligible.  Currently the DRAM program is in its seventh implementation and is offered by the selected third party aggregators (listed below) for delivery in 2022.

SDG&E Electric Rule 32  governs how SDG&E interacts with third party Demand Response Providers (DRPs). The Commission, in D.15-03-042, followed by D. 16-06-008, authorized SDG&E to put into place certain processes and systems to facilitate third party DRPs' ability to bid demand response resources into the CAISO wholesale market through Proxy Demand Resources (PDRs) and Reliability Demand Response Resources (RDRRs). The DRAM program is subject to the provisions of Rule 32 which establishes certain processes, time frames and volume limits, plus any additional limitations authorized by the Commission. Currently with the implementation, the Commission has approved SDG&E’s limitation up to 260,000 customer market registrations for Rule32.

How to participate

1. Choose a service provider from this list.

2. Contact the service provider of your choice and they will describe their offering and  the enrollment processes and help you fill out the required forms

To learn more about DRAM please contact a service provider from the list above.

Training Material

SDG&E has conducted DRAM webinar conferences for interested DRPs and other interested parties.

Documents

For Customers:

• CISR-DRP Form

• Understanding Electric Rule 32

For Service Providers:

• 2024 DRAM RFO

• 2023 DRAM RFO

• 2022 DRAM RFO

• 2018 DRAM RFO

• 2019 DRAM RFO

• 2020 DRAM RFO

• 2021 DRAM RFO

• CISR-DRP Form

• Understanding Electric Rule 32

• DRP Service Agreement