A Conversation with Southern California Edison’s Amy Discher
Amy has been with Southern California Edison for 18 years, for the past two years on the Codes and Standards team for reach codes. Prior to that she served as an SCE account manager for K-12 schools. She is married with three sons and enjoys reading and the beach in her spare time.
Q: Amy, what are you seeing in the SCE service territory regarding reach code policy development as we enter a new code cycle?
A: We’re seeing a continued interest in reach code development, with emphasis on electrification and decarbonization as well as grid efficient buildings. While there may be more focus on opportunities for nonresidential buildings, we’re very excited to witness an accelerated interest over the past couple of years.
Q: What do you attribute this to?
A: There’s a lot of strength in local, regional and statewide collaboration, the sense that a rising tide lifts all boats. At the statewide level, the sharing of best practices between jurisdictions continues to streamline local policy development efforts. We’ve seen sharing between communities like Goleta and Corte Madera, as well as communities with more geographic overlap, such as City of LA and LA County. Regardless of the distance, the outcome of this collaboration is really to empower every jurisdiction with tools and resources they don’t have to create themselves.
Q: Let’s talk a little more about collaboration; what do you think are the strongest aspects for your jurisdictions?
A: At the statewide level, of course the localenergycodes.com and CALGreenInfo.com websites are tremendous resources. USGBC-CA has just developed a new resource, the California Building Performance Hub, which also promises to be a terrific resource. (See the accompanying article, left, for more information). At a regional level, the Central Coast Working Group is very robust. The informal collaborative culture in this community is also very strong!
Q: What programs and resources does SCE offer to communities in its service territories?
A: We’ve really worked to expand our support, not only to local jurisdictions but other institutional organizations. For instance, we’ve partnered with K-12 school districts to facilitate implementation of electrification policies. Similarly, we actively work to engage with the 13 unique tribal organizations in our service area, who have no legal compliance obligations under Title 24 but often great interest in advancing electrification and decarbonization goals. As always, we are available to local staff for letters of support and other outreach efforts. We can be a great starting point for new local staff who may not know where else to start! We offer a ‘first line of defense’ where we can engage, suggest additional resources and maintain strong lines of communication throughout the policy development process.
