AB 868

Bill Subjects

Abstract

Under existing law, the Public Utilities Commission has regulatory authority over public utilities, including electrical corporations, while local publicly owned electric utilities are under the direction of their governing boards. Existing law provides that electrical cooperatives are subject to the regulatory authority of the commission pursuant to the Public Utilities Act, except as specified. Existing law requires each electrical corporation, local publicly owned electric utility, and electrical cooperative to construct, maintain, and operate its electrical lines and equipment in a manner that will minimize the risk of catastrophic wildfire posed by those electrical lines and equipment. Existing law requires each electrical corporation, local publicly owned electric utility, and electrical cooperative to annually prepare a wildfire mitigation plan. Existing law requires that a wildfire mitigation plan of an electrical corporation include protocols for disabling reclosers and deenergizing portions of the electrical distribution system that consider the associated impacts on public safety, as well as protocols related to mitigating the public safety impacts of those protocols, including impacts on critical first responders and on health and communications infrastructure. Existing law requires that a wildfire mitigation plan of an electrical corporation include appropriate and feasible procedures for notifying a customer who may be impacted by the deenergizing of electrical lines. Existing law requires that the procedures consider the need to notify, as a priority, critical first responders, health care facilities, and operators of telecommunications infrastructure. This bill would require each electrical corporation that deenergizes portions of the distribution grid as a wildfire mitigation measure to adopt protocols for when deenergization will be undertaken and for providing notice and other steps to be taken to minimize any adverse effects from deenergization, as specified. The bill would require that the electrical corporation, in developing the protocols, consult with persons and institutions that are reasonably likely to be affected by a deenergization, including local schools, water suppliers, wastewater agencies, disability rights advocates, consumer groups, fire departments, law enforcement agencies, local government officials, local elected officials, hospitals, and communications providers. The bill would require an electrical corporation that deenergizes portions of the distribution grid as a wildfire mitigation measure to maintain an internet website, or maintain a dedicated web page identified and accessible from its general internet website, that is devoted to public safety as it relates to the utility services provided by the electrical corporation, as specified.