Participant table – clarify reporting rules
Add additional guidance to the Upload Statewide Claim Data and Claims User Guide pages.
Documentation should clarify that:
Participant counts are submitted separately at the statewide level.
Participant data is not allocated across individual Program Administrators.
The lead Program Administrator is responsible for submitting and maintaining statewide Participant counts.
Replacement behaviour of the participant table
Proposed guidance Wed 26 August:
To go on the Upload Statewide Claim Data Page
Participant counts need to be reported as part of statewide and local Claims submissions.
Statewide are not allocated across individual Program Administrators. Similar to the Site and Contact data, Participant data remains at the statewide level. The lead Program Administrator for the statewide program is responsible for submitting and maintaining these Participant counts.
Claims user guide
Submitting Participant table data
Participant counts must be submitted in the Participant table for any program that has participants. Some programs may be exempt from this requirement — please see this section in the FAQs below.
Participant counts need to be reported as part of statewide and local claims submissions. Statewide are not allocated across individual Program Administrators. Similar to the Site and Contact data, Participant data remains at the statewide level. The lead Program Administrator for the statewide program is responsible for submitting and maintaining these participant counts.
What happens when you submit Participant data in a program claim?
When you successfully submit new Participant data in a program claim, it replaces previously submitted Participant data associated with that program claim.
This means:
The latest successful submission becomes the current year-to-date Participant dataset.
Participant records included in a previous submission, but not included in the latest submission, are removed.
Each subsequent quarterly submission should include both previously reported participants for that year, and any new participants being reported.
When is Participant data required?
Participant data is required for programs where there are participants.
The following programs are exempt from reporting Participant data:
Codes & Standards (C&S) programs advocating at the state and federal level.
Energy Savings Assistance (ESA) programs.
Programs that have ‘exclude from budget flag’ marked true in their program definition.
Programs that have “Non-Program” selected for their program implementer.
Participant data provides year-to-date values. In other words, participant counts are shown as a cumulative number that restarts at zero annually.
To add on Where should I input rebates and incentives?
Resolution E-5350 clarified that incentives and rebates are only funds that buy down or reduce the cost of the measures. Incentives given to other parties, such as distributors or manufacturers, which do not buy down the cost of the measure instead belong in a program’s direct implementation costs.
- Select the module in CEDARS
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Comments3
cedars team
Aug 5
Feedback from Mary Sutter:
I suggest that you add somethings like this to the first paragraph: "Participant data provides annual values. In other words, the participant counts are shown as a cumulative number that restarts at zero annually. " I think that language is needed to say that the counts are annual counts and that each time a PA updates the table, it is the total of participants to date for that year. Update how I wrote it for clarity as needed.
I don't understand the second paragraph - counts by PA are important. Each PA is providing their own set of data, so why couldn't it be allocated by PA? Is this paragraph solely for statewide programs? If so, then you should add that as "For statewide programs..."
I know that where participation is occurring in statewide programs is of interest to Ely (Ely, jump in here if I have this wrong). Because PA's overlap, perhaps statewide programs should show participation by county. Did the group discuss this at all?
Participant data is required for programs where there are participants (so Resource Acquisition, Equity, Market Support programs)
The C&S programs that advocate at the state and federal level appear to be exemptions (at least in my mind)
I don't know about ESA. The IOUs already provide counts of households annually to the Low Income Oversight Board (https://liob.cpuc.ca.gov/wp-content/uploads/sites/14/2026/05/2025_ESA_CARE_FERA_AR_Tables.xlsx) is an example with counts in the tab labeled "ESA Table 2" so may be superfluous here.
I would assume that exemptions will arise as the table is used. For example, do programs that work exclusively with distributors provide the number of participating distributors? I'm not sure if the groups discussed items like this.
cedars team
Aug 4
Draft guidance:
When a new Participant submission is successfully submitted, the previously submitted Participant data associated with that submission is replaced with the Participant data contained in the latest successful submission. Participant records that are not included in the latest successful submission are removed.
Participant counts are reported as part of the statewide submission and are not allocated across individual Program Administrators. Similar to the Site and Contact data, Participant data remains at the statewide level. The lead Program Administrator for the statewide program is responsible for submitting and maintaining these participant counts.
❓TBC Any program-specific exceptions apply according to the approved business rules.
cedars team
Jul 29
❓Outstanding Questions
Scope:
Should replacement behaviour apply only to Statewide submissions, or should Local submissions behave the same way?
Should active uploads continue using the existing upsert behaviour until the submission is finalised?
Should replacement occur only after a submission reaches a successful Submitted status?
Business Rules:
Is Participant data required for all program types?
Are Codes & Standards programs exempt?
Are ESA programs exempt?
Are there any other exemptions?