AB 843

Bill Subjects

Abstract

Under existing law, the Public Utilities Commission has regulatory authority over public utilities, including electrical corporations. Existing law requires the commission, in consultation with the Independent System Operator, to establish resource adequacy requirements for all load-serving entities, defined to include electrical corporations, community choice aggregators, and electric service providers. The California Renewables Portfolio Standard Program requires the commission to establish a renewables portfolio standard requiring all retail sellers, defined as including electrical corporations, community choice aggregators, and electric service providers, to procure a minimum quantity of electricity products from eligible renewable energy resources, as defined, so that the total kilowatthours of those products sold to their retail end-use customers achieves 33% of retail sales by December 31, 2020, 44% by December 31, 2024, 52% by December 31, 2027, and 60% by December 31, 2030. The California Renewables Portfolio Standard Program requires every electrical corporation to file with the commission a standard tariff for electricity generated by an electric generation facility, as defined, that qualifies for the tariff, is owned and operated by a retail customer of the electrical corporation, and is located within the service territory of, and developed to sell electricity to, the electrical corporation. The commission refers to this requirement as the renewable feed-in tariff. This bill would provide that the renewable feed-in tariff would apply to a qualifying electric generation facility that is developed to sell electricity to the electrical corporation or, for a bioenergy electric generation facility, to an electrical corporation or a community choice aggregator within the electrical corporation's service territory. Under existing law, the renewable feed-in tariff law, in part, requires the commission to direct the electrical corporations, collectively, to procure at least 250 megawatts of cumulative rated generating capacity from developers of bioenergy projects that commence operation on or after June 1, 2013. Pursuant to this requirement, the commission has established and revised the Bioenergy Market Adjusting Tariff (BioMAT) program. This bill would authorize a community choice aggregator to submit eligible bioenergy projects for cost recovery pursuant to the BioMAT program, if open capacity exists within the 250-megawatt BioMAT program limit, as specified. The bill would additionally require that every kilowatthour of electricity purchased from a bioenergy electric generation facility count toward both the community choice aggregator's renewables portfolio standard procurement requirements and the bioenergy project procurement requirements of the electrical corporation whose service territory encompasses the community choice aggregator, and that the physical generating capacity of a bioenergy electric generation facility count toward the community choice aggregator's resource adequacy requirements. 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 provisions of this bill would be a part of the act and because 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.