SB 1174

Bill Subjects

Abstract

(1) The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) has exclusive jurisdiction over the transmission of electricity in interstate commerce, over the sale of electricity at wholesale in interstate commerce, and over all facilities for the transmission or sale of electricity in interstate commerce. Existing law vests the Public Utilities Commission (PUC) with regulatory authority over public utilities, including electrical corporations. The California Renewables Portfolio Standard Program requires the PUC to establish a renewables portfolio standard requiring all retail sellers, including electrical corporations, electric service providers, and community choice aggregators, to procure a minimum quantity of electricity products from eligible renewable energy resources so that the total kilowatthours of those products sold to their retail end-use customers achieves 25% of retail sales by December 31, 2016, 33% by December 31, 2020, 44% by December 31, 2024, 52% by December 31, 2027, and 60% by December 31, 2030. Existing law requires an electrical corporation that owns electrical transmission facilities to annually prepare, as part of a specified FERC process, a report identifying any electrical transmission facility, upgrade, or enhancement that is reasonably necessary to achieve the procurement requirements of the California Renewables Portfolio Standard Program and to submit that report to the PUC. This bill would require each electrical corporation that owns electrical transmission facilities to annually prepare, and submit to the PUC, concurrently with each electrical corporation's annual renewable energy procurement plan, a report on any changes to previously reported in-service dates of transmission and interconnection facilities necessary to provide transmission deliverability to eligible renewable energy resources or energy storage resources that have executed interconnection agreements, and to identify the reason for any changes to the status of in-service dates. (2) Existing law requires the PUC to annually report specified information to the Legislature in order to evaluate the progress of the state's electrical corporations in complying with the California Renewables Portfolio Standard Program. This bill would require that annual report to also include a systemwide assessment of delays to interconnection or transmission approvals for eligible renewable energy resources or energy storage resources, based on those annual reports. (3) Existing law requires the PUC to adopt a process for each electrical corporation, electric service provider, or community choice aggregator to file an integrated resource plan and a schedule for periodic updates to the plan, and to ensure that those entities take specified actions, including meeting certain greenhouse gas emissions reduction targets and procuring at least 60% eligible renewable energy resources by December 31, 2030, as specified. For those purposes, existing law requires the PUC to consider the role of existing renewable generation, grid operational efficiencies, energy storage, and distributed energy resources in helping to ensure those entities meet energy and reliability needs during peak demand, 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. This bill would additionally require the PUC, for those purposes, to also consider the role of transmission. (4) Under existing law, a violation of the Public Utilities Act or any order, decision, rule, direction, demand, or requirement of the PUC is a crime. Because the provisions of this bill would be a part of the act and a violation of a PUC action implementing its 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.