BILL NUMBER: AB 66 AMENDED
BILL TEXT
AMENDED IN SENATE JUNE 11, 2013
AMENDED IN ASSEMBLY MAY 8, 2013
AMENDED IN ASSEMBLY MARCH 14, 2013
INTRODUCED BY Assembly Member Muratsuchi
( Coauthor: Senator Hill
)
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 an annual reliability
report reports required by specified
decisions of the commissions that are due af ter July 1,
2014 , information on system reliability , including
that identifies the frequency and duration of
interruptions in services ranked by areas with both the most frequent
and longest outages , using geographic regions determined by
the commission . The bill would require the commission to use
the information to require cost-effective remediation of
reliability deficiencies if the report, or more than one report,
identifies repeated deficiencies in the same geographic
region. The bill would require the electrical corporations to
post their annual reports on their Internet Web site. 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) (1) The commission shall
require an electrical corporation include in an annual reliability
report required pursuant to Decisions 96-09-045 and 04-10-034
, information on system reliability , including
that identifies , but is not limited
to, the frequency and duration of interruptions in services .
This information shall be ranked by areas with both the most
frequent and longest outages , using geographic region
s determined by the commission . The information shall be
sufficiently aggregated to both maintain electrical system
security , and be of use and relevance to affected customers of
the electrical corporation .
(2) Before July 1, 2014, the commission shall determine the
geographic regions for the purposes of paragraph (1).
(3) The requirements of paragraph (1) shall apply to annual
reports due after July 1, 2014.
(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.
(b) The commission shall use the information contained in an
electrical corporation's annual reliability report to require
cost-effective remediation of reliability deficiencies if the
report, or more than one report, identifies repeated deficiencies in
the same geographic region as determined by the
commission pursuant to paragraph (3) of subdivision (a) . In
requiring cost-effective remediation, the commission
may shall consider mitigating factors
that may impede an electrical corporation from implementing required
cost-effective remediation, including , but not
limited to, local permitting matters or other events or
conditions or public policy considerations 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.