AB 1373

Bill Subjects

Abstract

(1) Existing law requires the State Energy Resources Conservation and Development Commission (Energy Commission) , in consultation with specified entities, to adopt a biennial integrated energy policy report containing certain information, including an overview of major energy trends and issues facing the state. This bill would require, as part of the 2025 edition of the integrated energy policy report, the Energy Commission, in consultation with the Public Utilities Commission (PUC) , to assess barriers to electricity interconnection and energization and provide recommendations on how to accelerate those processes, as appropriate. Existing law establishes the Voluntary Offshore Wind and Coastal Resources Protection Program that is administered by the Energy Commission for the purpose of supporting state activities that complement and are in furtherance of federal laws related to the development of offshore wind facilities and requires the program to award moneys to public and private entities through various mechanisms. Existing law authorizes the Energy Commission to allocate moneys under the program for various purposes. The bill would additionally authorize the Energy Commission to allocate moneys under the program for workforce development grants in consultation with the California Workforce Development Board. (2) Existing law requires the PUC to identify a diverse and balanced portfolio of resources needed to ensure a reliable electricity supply that provides optimal integration of renewable energy in a cost-effective manner. 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 meet other specified requirements. This bill would require that the portfolio of resources ensure a reliable electricity supply that also provides optimal integration of resource diversity in a cost-effective manner, as specified. The bill would require the PUC, on or before September 1, 2024, and consistent with a certain process and schedule, to determine if there is a need for the procurement of eligible energy resources, as described, would require the PUC to specify the eligible energy resources that should be procured to meet that need, and would authorize the PUC, within 6 months of making that determination, to request the Department of Water Resources to procure those specified resources that meet the portfolio of resources, as specified. The bill would authorize the department to procure those resources pursuant to that request only before January 1, 2035, as provided. The bill would authorize the PUC to order the procurement of resources with specific attributes by electrical corporations, electric service providers, and community choice aggregators as a result of the integrated resource planning process and require the PUC to enforce any resource procurement requirements on a nondiscriminatory basis. (3) Existing law prohibits an electrical corporation from beginning the construction of, among other things, a line, plant, or system, or of any extension thereof, without having first obtained from the PUC a certificate that the present or future public convenience and necessity require or will require that construction. Under existing law, the extension, expansion, upgrade, or other modification of an existing electrical transmission facility, including transmission lines and substations, does not require a certificate that the present or future public convenience and necessity requires or will require its construction. This bill would require the PUC, in a proceeding evaluating the issuance of a certificate of public convenience and necessity for a proposed transmission project, to establish a rebuttable presumption with regard to need for the proposed transmission project in favor of an Independent System Operator governing board-approved need evaluation if specified requirements are satisfied. (4) Existing law requires each local publicly owned electric utility serving end-use customers to prudently plan for and procure resources that are adequate to meet its planning reserve margin and peak demand and operating reserves, sufficient to provide reliable electric service to its customers. This bill would authorize a local publicly owned electric utility to meet its minimum planning reserve margin through individual contractual procurement or through an aggregated or pooled portfolio of resources, as specified. (5) Existing law establishes the Department of Water Resources Electricity Supply Reliability Reserve Fund and continuously appropriates moneys in the fund to the department for purposes of (A) implementing projects, purchases, and contracts to carry out specified purposes, (B) constructing, owning, and operating, or contracting for the construction and operation of, contracting for the purchase of electricity from, or financing through loans, reimbursement agreements, or other contracts actions to secure resources for summer reliability or to preserve the option to extend the life of specified facilities, and (C) reimbursing electrical corporations for the value of imported energy or import capacity products that were delivered or capable of being delivered between July 1, 2022, and on or before October 31, 2023, and were procured at above-market costs or in excess of procurement authorizations set by the PUC and above the requirements needed to serve the electrical corporation's bundled customers in support of summer electric service reliability. This bill would require the PUC, on and before June 30, 2027, if the department determines that resources it procured through the Electricity Supply Strategic Reliability Reserve Program were used in a given month to meet a load-serving entity's identified reliability need, to annually assess a capacity payment on each load-serving entity that during that same month fails to meet its system resource adequacy requirements, as specified. The bill would require the Energy Commission, on or before January 31, 2024, in consultation with the PUC, to submit a report to the appropriate policy and budget committees of the Legislature that includes an assessment of whether each local publicly owned electric utility exceeded, met, or failed to meet its minimum planning reserve margin and specified system resource adequacy requirements. Upon the submission of that report, the bill would require the executive director of the Energy Commission, on and before June 30, 2027, if the department determines that resources it procured through the Electricity Supply Strategic Reliability Reserve Program were used in a given month to meet an identified reliability need, to annually assess a capacity payment on each local publicly owned electric utility in the Independent System Operator balancing area that during that same month fails to meet its minimum planning reserve margin, as specified. The bill would authorize the Energy Commission to adopt regulations for this purpose, as specified. The bill would establish the Load-Serving Entity Capacity Payment Account and the Local Publicly Owned Electric Utility Capacity Payment Account in the Department of Water Resources Electricity Supply Reliability Reserve Fund, and would specify that moneys in those accounts would, upon appropriation by the Legislature, be used for certain purposes. The bill would require capacity payments collected by the department from load-serving entities and local publicly owned electric utilities to be deposited into those 2 accounts, as provided. This bill would require the PUC, if the PUC requests the department to procure eligible energy resources and the department elects to conduct competitive solicitations or enter into contracts for eligible energy resources, to develop and adopt procedures and requirements that govern competitive procurement by, obligations on, and recovery of costs incurred by the department. The bill would require the department, in evaluating bids received through a solicitation to consider certain factors. The bill would require bids for the development of an eligible energy resource project to include the bidder's certification that certain labor requirements are met and that a skilled and trained workforce will be used to perform all construction work on the eligible energy resource project, as provided. The bill would, at the request of the department, authorize the PUC to require an electrical corporation to act as the agent for the department or to assist the department in conducting the solicitation, bid evaluation, or contract negotiation for new eligible energy resource procurement. The bill would authorize the department to establish a schedule and mechanism for a local publicly owned electric utility to voluntarily obtain from the department eligible energy resources to be acquired by the department through its central procurement function on a contract-by-contract basis. The bill would provide electrical corporations, electric service providers, and community choice aggregators with a voluntary option to obtain incremental eligible energy resources from the department, as provided. At the request of the department, the bill would authorize the PUC to order an electrical corporation to transmit or provide for the transmission of, and distribute all electricity made available by the department, and, as an agent of the department, to provide billing, collection, and other related services on terms and conditions that reasonably compensate the electrical corporation for its services and adequately secure payment to the department. The bill would establish the Eligible Energy Resource Central Procurement Fund and continuously appropriate moneys in the fund to the department for specified purposes. By establishing a continuously appropriated fund, the bill would make an appropriation. The bill would require that all moneys collected by electrical corporations, electric service providers, community choice aggregators, and local publicly owned electric utilities and remitted to the department for eligible energy resources, and all moneys paid directly or indirectly to or for the account of the department for any sale, exchange, transfer, or disposition of those resources, be deposited into the fund. The bill would authorize the department, upon determining that it is necessary or desirable to issue bonds to support activities for the procurement of eligible energy resources, to issue bonds for purposes of, among other things, financing the procurement of those resources supporting the fund and other related expenses incurred by the department, as specified. The bill would authorize the department to adopt regulations for purposes of administering these provisions. (6) This bill would provide that, upon appropriation by the Legislature, the sum of no less than $6,000,000 from the General Fund is available in the 2024–25 fiscal year to support comprehensive, regional baseline environmental monitoring and research into the impacts of prospective offshore wind energy development in and around regions in which offshore wind energy areas have been leased by the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management of the United States Department of the Interior, pending future legislation. The bill would provide that, upon appropriation by the Legislature, additional moneys from the General Fund will be made available for the 2024–25 fiscal year and subsequent fiscal years to support the California Coastal Commission's coastal development permitting of prospective offshore wind energy development in and around regions in which offshore wind energy areas have been leased by the bureau, pending future legislation. The bill would state the intent of the Legislature to appropriate additional resources for environmental permitting and related needs across applicable state entities upon the submission and review of a specified assessment. (7) 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 certain of the above provisions would be part of the act and a violation of a PUC action implementing this 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. (8) This bill would declare that it is to take effect immediately as an urgency statute.