Bill Text: CA SB1148 | 2023-2024 | Regular Session | Introduced

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

---

Bill Title: Electrical service: master meters.

Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Democrat 2-0)

Status: (Introduced) 2024-04-23 - April 22 set for second hearing. Failed passage in committee. (Ayes 6. Noes 6. Page 3701.) [SB1148 Detail]

Download: California-2023-SB1148-Introduced.html

---

CALIFORNIA LEGISLATURE— 2023–2024 REGULAR SESSION

Senate Bill

No. 1148

---

Introduced by Senators Blakespear and Wahab

February 14, 2024

---

An act to amend Section 780.5 of, and to add Section 780.7 to, the Public Utilities Code, relating to electricity.

LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST

SB 1148, as introduced, Blakespear. Electrical service: multifamily dwellings and local government buildings.

Existing law vests the Public Utilities Commission with regulatory authority over public utilities, including electrical corporations and gas corporations. Existing law requires the commission to require every residential unit in an apartment house or similar multiunit residential structure, condominium, or mobilehome park issued a building permit on or after July 1, 1982, with certain exceptions, to be individually metered for electrical and gas service.

This bill would add an exception from the requirement that every residential unit be individually metered for electrical service for a multifamily dwelling that includes a microgrid, as defined, and that meets specified requirements, including, among other things, that each tenant’s electricity costs are less than what the tenant would have paid without the deployment of the microgrid, that the multifamily dwelling uses electricity generated from renewable energy resources, that all construction workers employed in the construction of the dwelling are paid at least the general prevailing rate of wages, as specified, and that the owner of the dwelling bills tenants using one of 3 specified methods.

The bill would require the commission to authorize the use of a master meter in any building owned or operated by a local government.

Under existing law, a violation of the Public Utilities Act or any order, decision, rule, direction, demand, or requirement of the commission is a crime.

Because the bill’s provisions would be part of the act and a violation of a commission action implementing the bill’s requirements would be a crime, the bill would impose a state-mandated local program.

The California Constitution requires the state to reimburse local agencies and school districts for certain costs mandated by the state. Statutory provisions establish procedures for making that reimbursement.

This bill would provide that no reimbursement is required by this act for a specified reason.

Digest Key

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

---

Bill Text

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

SECTION 1.

 Section 780.5 of the Public Utilities Code is amended to read:

780.5.

 The (a) Except as provided in subdivision (b), the commission shall require every residential unit in an apartment house or similar multiunit residential structure, condominium, and mobilehome park for which a building permit has been obtained on or after July 1, 1982, other than a dormitory or other housing accommodation provided by any postsecondary educational institution for its students or employees and other than farmworker housing, to be individually metered for electrical and gas service, except that separate metering for gas service is not required for residential units which are not equipped with gas appliances requiring venting or are equipped with only vented decorative appliances or which receive the majority of energy used for water or space heating from a solar energy system or through cogeneration technology. service.

(b) All of the following are not required to be individually metered for electrical and gas service:

(1) Dormitory or other housing accommodations provided by any postsecondary educational institution for its students or employees.

(2) Farmworker housing.

(3) With respect to gas service, residential units that are not equipped with gas appliances requiring venting or are equipped with only vented decorative appliances or that receive the majority of energy used for water or space heating from a solar energy system or through cogeneration technology.

(4) With respect to electrical service, a multifamily dwelling that includes a microgrid, as defined in Section 8370, and that meets all of the following requirements:

(A) Each tenant’s electricity costs are less than what the tenant would have otherwise paid for the use of the electricity without the deployment of the microgrid.

(B) If the multifamily dwelling includes 20 or more residential units, the dwelling electrically isolates from the electrical distribution grid during the daily peak period, from 4 p.m. to 9 p.m., and serves all electrical loads with onsite generation.

(C) The multifamily dwelling uses electricity generated from eligible renewable energy resources, as defined in Section 399.12.

(D) All construction workers employed in the construction of the multifamily dwelling are paid at least the general prevailing rate of per diem wages for the type of work and geographic area, as determined by the Director of Industrial Relations under Sections 1773 and 1773.9 of the Labor Code, except that apprentices registered in programs approved by the Chief of the Division of Apprenticeship Standards may be paid at least the applicable apprentice prevailing rate.

(E) The owner of the multifamily dwelling bills residential tenants for electricity use by doing one of the following:

(i) Charging each tenant for the tenant’s direct electricity usage, as measured by private submeters installed for each individual unit in the dwelling.

(ii) Incorporating the cost of electricity within the rent charged for each individual unit, if the amount included within the rent is equal for all tenants and does not vary with electricity usage.

(iii) Charging each tenant based on the total square footage for each individual unit, except that the rate charged shall retain incentives for conservation and efficiency so that a tenant with relatively efficient electricity usage shall pay less than a tenant who has relatively inefficient electricity usage and resides in a unit of the same size.

SEC. 2.

 Section 780.7 is added to the Public Utilities Code, to read:

780.7.

 The commission shall authorize the use of a master meter in any building owned or operated by a local government.

SEC. 3.

 No reimbursement is required by this act pursuant to Section 6 of Article XIII B of the California Constitution because the only costs that may be incurred by a local agency or school district will be incurred because this act creates a new crime or infraction, eliminates a crime or infraction, or changes the penalty for a crime or infraction, within the meaning of Section 17556 of the Government Code, or changes the definition of a crime within the meaning of Section 6 of Article XIII B of the California Constitution.