Amended in Senate June 11, 2013

Amended in Assembly May 8, 2013

Amended in Assembly March 14, 2013

California Legislature—2013–14 Regular Session

Assembly Bill No. 66

Introduced by Assembly Member Muratsuchi

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(Coauthor: Senator Hill)

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January 7, 2013

An act to add Section 2774.1 to the Public Utilities Code, relating to electricity.

LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL’S DIGEST

AB 66, as amended, Muratsuchi. Electricity: system reliability.

Under existing law, the Public Utilities Commission has regulatory authority over public utilities, including electrical corporations, as defined. The Public Utilities Act authorizes the commission to ascertain and fix just and reasonable standards, classifications, regulations, practices, measurements, or service to be furnished, imposed, observed, and followed by specified public utilities, including all electrical corporations. If the commission finds after a hearing that the rules, practices, equipment, appliances, facilities, or service of any public utility, or of the methods of manufacture, distribution, transmission, storage, or supply employed by the public utility, are unjust, unreasonable, unsafe, improper, inadequate, or insufficient, the act requires that the commission determine and, by order or rule, fix the rules, practices, equipment, appliances, facilities, service, or methods to be observed, furnished, constructed, enforced, or employed. 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.

This bill would require the commission to require an electrical corporation include in begin delete an end delete annual reliability begin delete report end delete begin insert reports required by specified decisions of the commissions that are due after July 1, 2014 end insert , information on system reliability begin delete , including end delete begin insert that identifies end insert the frequency and duration of interruptions in services ranked by areas with both the most frequent and longest outages begin insert , using geographic regions determined by the commission end insert . The bill would require the commission to use the information to require begin insert cost-effective end insert remediation of reliability deficiencies if the report, or more than one report, identifies repeated deficiencies in the same begin insert geographic end insert region. begin insert The bill would require the electrical corporations to post their annual reports on their Internet Web site. end insert Because a violation of any order, decision, rule, direction, demand, or requirement of the commission is a crime, this bill would impose a state-mandated local program by expanding the definition of a crime.

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.

Vote: majority. Appropriation: no. Fiscal committee: yes. State-mandated local program: yes.

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

SECTION 1.  

Section 2774.1 is added to the Public Utilities
Code, to read:

2774.1.  

(a)  begin insert (1) end insert begin insert   end insert The commission shall require an electrical
corporation include in an annual reliability report begin insert required pursuant
to Decisions 96-09-045 and 04-10-034 end insert , information on system
reliability begin delete , including end delete begin insert that identifies end insert , but begin insert is end insert not limited to, the
frequency and duration of interruptions in services begin insert . This
information shall be end insert ranked by areas with both the most frequent
and longest outages begin insert , using geographic regions determined by the
commission end insert . The information shall be sufficiently aggregated to
begin insert both end insert maintain electrical system security begin insert , and be of use and
relevance to affected customers of the electrical corporation end insert .

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(2) Before July 1, 2014, the commission shall determine the
geographic regions for the purposes of paragraph (1).

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(3) The requirements of paragraph (1) shall apply to annual
reports due after July 1, 2014.

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(4) The electrical corporation shall post on its Internet Web site
the annual report required pursuant to Decisions 96-09-045 and
04-10-034.

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(b) The commission shall use the information contained in an
electrical corporation’s annual reliability report to require
begin insert cost-effective end insert remediation of reliability deficiencies if the report,
or more than one report, identifies repeated deficiencies in the
same begin insert geographic end insert region begin insert as determined by the commission pursuant
to paragraph (3) of subdivision (a) end insert . In requiring begin insert cost-effective end insert
remediation, the commission begin delete may end delete begin insert shall end insert consider mitigating factors
that may impede an electrical corporation from implementing
required begin insert cost-effective end insert remediation, including begin insert , but not limited to, end insert
local permitting matters or other events begin insert or conditions or public
policy considerations end insert that may present higher priority safety or
reliability issues.

(c) (1) The commission may order an electrical corporation to
make more frequent trend analyses of regional service reliability
and to make those analyses publicly available.

(2) The information made publicly available shall provide
sufficient confidentiality for purposes of protecting electrical
system security.

(3) The commission may make those analyses publicly available.

SEC. 2.  

It is the intent of the Legislature in adding Section
2774.1 to the Public Utilities Code, that the required system
reliability information be included in the annual report required
by the Public Utilities Commission in Decision 96-09-045
(September 4, 1996), while preserving the discretion of the
commission to modify an electrical corporation’s reporting
requirements.

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.