Bill Text: CA AB1362 | 2019-2020 | Regular Session | Amended

NOTE: There are more recent revisions of this legislation. Read Latest Draft

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Bill Title: Electricity: load-serving entities: rate and program information.

Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Democrat 2-0)

Status: (Passed) 2019-10-02 - Chaptered by Secretary of State - Chapter 395, Statutes of 2019. [AB1362 Detail]

Download: California-2019-AB1362-Amended.html

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Amended  IN  Assembly  March 26, 2019

CALIFORNIA LEGISLATURE— 2019–2020 REGULAR SESSION

Assembly Bill

No. 1362

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Introduced by Assembly Member O’Donnell

February 22, 2019

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An act to amend Section 454.52 of the Public Utilities Code, relating to electricity. An act to amend Section 707 of the Public Utilities Code, relating to electricity.

LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST

AB 1362, as amended, O’Donnell. Electricity: load-serving entities: integrated resource plans. Community choice aggregation.

Under existing law, the Public Utilities Commission has regulatory authority over public utilities, including electrical corporations. Existing law authorizes a community choice aggregator to aggregate the electrical load of electricity consumers within its boundaries and within the service territory of an electrical corporation. Existing law requires an electrical corporation to cooperate fully with any community choice aggregator that investigates, pursues, or implements community choice aggregation programs, including providing appropriate billing and electrical load data, which includes electrical consumption data, as defined. Existing law requires the commission to institute a rulemaking proceeding by March 1, 2012, for the purpose of considering and adopting a code of conduct, associated rules, and enforcement procedures, to govern the conduct of an electrical corporation relative to the consideration, formation, and implementation of community choice aggregation programs and to implement the code of conduct, associated rules, and enforcement procedures by January 1, 2013.

This bill would require the commission to implement the code of conduct, associated rules, and enforcement procedures equally across all electrical corporations, electric service providers, and community choice aggregators. The bill would require the commission to ensure that local government entities have full access to accurate information on the short- and long-term costs, benefits, and risks associated with implementation of a community choice aggregation program and would prohibit the code of conduct, associated rules, and enforcement procedures from inhibiting communications between a load-serving entity and a local government entity for those purposes.

Existing law requires the Public Utilities Commission to adopt a process for each electrical corporation, electric service provider, and community choice aggregator to file an integrated resource plan and a schedule for periodic updates to the plan to ensure that each of those entities, among other things, meets the state’s greenhouse gas emissions reduction targets and procures at least 50% of its electricity from eligible renewable energy resources by December 31, 2030.

This bill would make nonsubstantive changes to those provisions.

Digest Key

Vote: MAJORITY   Appropriation: NO   Fiscal Committee: NOYES   Local Program: NO  

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Bill Text

The people of the State of California do enact as follows:

SECTION 1.

 Section 707 of the Public Utilities Code is amended to read:

707.

 (a) Not later than March 1, 2012, the commission shall institute a rulemaking proceeding for the purpose of considering and adopting a code of conduct, associated rules, and enforcement procedures, to govern the conduct of the electrical corporations relative to the consideration, formation, and implementation of community choice aggregation programs authorized in Section 366.2. The code of conduct, associated rules, and enforcement procedures, shall do all of the following:

(1) Ensure that an electrical corporation does not market against a community choice aggregation program, except through an independent marketing division that is funded exclusively by the electrical corporation’s shareholders and that is functionally and physically separate from the electrical corporation’s ratepayer-funded divisions.

(2) Limit the electrical corporation’s independent marketing division’s use of support services from the electrical corporation’s ratepayer-funded divisions, and ensure that the electrical corporation’s independent marketing division is allocated costs of any permissible support services from the electrical corporation’s ratepayer-funded divisions on a fully allocated embedded cost basis, providing detailed public reports of such use.

(3) Ensure that the electrical corporation’s independent marketing division does not have access to competitively sensitive information.

(4) (A) Incorporate rules that the commission finds to be necessary or convenient in order to facilitate the development of community choice aggregation programs, to foster fair competition, and to protect against cross-subsidization paid by ratepayers.

(B) It is the intent of the Legislature that the rules include, in whole or in part, the rules approved by the commission in Decision 97-12-088 and Decision 08-06-016.

(C) This paragraph does not limit the authority of the commission to adopt rules that it determines are necessary or convenient in addition to those adopted in Decision 97-12-088 and Decision 08-06-016 or to modify any rule adopted in those decisions.

(5) Provide for any other matter that the commission determines to be necessary or advisable to protect a ratepayer’s right to be free from forced speech or to implement that portion of the federal Public Utility Regulatory Policies Act of 1978 that establishes the federal standard that no electric utility may recover from any person other than the shareholders or other owners of the utility, any direct or indirect expenditure by the electric utility for promotional or political advertising (16 U.S.C. Sec. 2623(b)(5)).

(b) (1) The commission shall ensure that the code of conduct, associated rules, and enforcement procedures are implemented by no later than January 1, 2013. equally across all load-serving entities, as defined in Section 380.

(2) The commission shall ensure that local government entities have full access to accurate information on the short- and long-term costs, benefits, and risks associated with implementation of a community choice aggregation program.

(c) This section does not limit the authority of the commission to require that any marketing against a community choice aggregation plan shall be conducted by an affiliate of the electrical corporation, or to require that marketing against a community choice aggregator not be conducted by a marketing division of the electrical corporation, subject to affiliate transaction rules to be developed by the commission.

(d) The code of conduct, associated rules, and enforcement procedures shall not inhibit communications between a load-serving entity and a local government entity for purposes of paragraph (2) of subdivision (b).

SECTION 1.Section 454.52 of the Public Utilities Code is amended to read:

454.52.

(a)(1)Beginning in 2017, and to be updated regularly thereafter, the commission shall adopt a process for each load-serving entity, as defined in Section 380, to file an integrated resource plan, and a schedule for periodic updates to the plan, to ensure that load-serving entities do all of the following:

(A)Meet the greenhouse gas emissions reduction targets established by the State Air Resources Board, in coordination with the commission and the Energy Commission, for the electricity sector and each load-serving entity that reflect the electricity sector’s percentage in achieving the economywide greenhouse gas emissions reductions of 40 percent from 1990 levels by 2030.

(B)Procure at least 50 percent eligible renewable energy resources by December 31, 2030, consistent with Article 16 (commencing with Section 399.11) of Chapter 2.3.

(C)Enable each electrical corporation to fulfill its obligation to serve its customers at just and reasonable rates.

(D)Minimize impacts on ratepayers’ bills.

(E)Ensure system and local reliability.

(3)In furtherance of the requirements of paragraph (1), the commission shall consider the role of existing renewable generation, grid operational efficiencies, energy storage, and distributed energy resources, including energy efficiency, in helping to ensure each load-serving entity meets energy needs and reliability needs in hours to encompass the hour of peak demand of electricity, excluding demand met by variable renewable generation directly connected to a California balancing authority, as defined in Section 399.12, while reducing the need for new electricity generation resources and new transmission resources in achieving the state’s energy goals at the least cost to ratepayers.

(b)(1)Each load-serving entity shall prepare and file an integrated resource plan consistent with paragraph (2) of subdivision (a) on a time schedule directed by the commission and subject to commission review.

(2)Each electrical corporation’s plan shall follow the provisions of Section 454.5.

(3)The plan of a community choice aggregator shall be submitted to its governing board for approval and provided to the commission for certification, consistent with paragraph (5) of subdivision (a) of Section 366.2, and shall achieve the following:

(A)Economic, reliability, environmental, security, and other benefits and performance characteristics that are consistent with the goals set forth in paragraph (1) of subdivision (a).

(B)A diversified procurement portfolio consisting of both short-term and long-term electricity and electricity-related and demand reduction products.

(C)The resource adequacy requirements established pursuant to Section 380.

(4)The plan of an electric service provider shall achieve the goals set forth in paragraph (1) of subdivision (a) through a diversified portfolio consisting of both short-term and long-term electricity, electricity-related, and demand reduction products.

(c)To the extent that additional procurement is authorized for the electrical corporation in the integrated resource plan or the procurement process authorized pursuant to Section 454.5, the commission shall ensure that the costs are allocated in a fair and equitable manner to all customers consistent with Section 454.51, that there is no cost shifting among customers of load-serving entities, and that community choice aggregators may self-provide renewable integration resources consistent with Section 454.51.

(d)To eliminate redundancy and increase efficiency, the process adopted pursuant to subdivision (a) shall incorporate, and not duplicate, any other planning processes of the commission.

(e)This section applies to an electrical cooperative, as defined in Section 2776, only if the electrical cooperative has an annual electrical demand exceeding 700 gigawatthours, as determined based on a three-year average commencing with January 1, 2013.