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 annual reliability reports required by specified decisions of the commissions that are due after July 1, 2014, information on system reliability that identifies the frequency and duration of interruptions in servicesbegin delete ranked byend deletebegin insert and listend insert 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 2774.1 is added to the Public Utilities
2Code, to read:
(a) (1) The commission shall require an electrical
4corporation include in an annual reliability report required pursuant
5to Decisions 96-09-045 and 04-10-034, information on system
6reliability that identifies, but is not limited to, the frequency and
7duration of interruptions in services. This information shallbegin delete be begin insert listend insert areas with both the most frequent and longest
8ranked byend delete
9outages, using geographic regions determined by the commission.
10The information shall be sufficiently aggregated to both maintain
11electrical system security, and be of use
and relevance to affected
12customers of the electrical corporation.
P3 1(2) Before July 1, 2014, the commission shall determine the
2geographic regions for the purposes of paragraph (1).
3(3) The requirements of paragraph (1) shall apply to annual
4reports due after July 1, 2014.
5(4) The electrical corporation shall post on its Internet Web site
6the annual report required pursuant to Decisions 96-09-045 and
704-10-034.
8(b) The commission shall use the information contained in an
9electrical corporation’s annual reliability report to require
10
cost-effective remediation of reliability deficiencies if the report,
11or more than one report, identifies repeated deficiencies in the
12same geographic region as determined by the commission pursuant
13to paragraph (3) of subdivision (a). In requiring cost-effective
14remediation, the commission shall consider mitigating factors that
15may impede an electrical corporation from implementing required
16cost-effective remediation, including, but not limited to,
local
17permitting matters or other events or conditions or public policy
18considerations that may present higher priority safety or reliability
19issues.
20(c) (1) The commission may order an electrical corporation to
21make more frequent trend analyses of regional service reliability
22and to make those analyses publicly available.
23 (2) The information made publicly available shall provide
24sufficient confidentiality for purposes of protecting electrical
25system security.
26(3) The commission may make those analyses publicly available.
It is the intent of the Legislature in adding Section
282774.1 to the Public Utilities Code, that the required system
29reliability information be included in the annual report required
30by the Public Utilities Commission in Decision 96-09-045
31(September 4, 1996), while preserving the discretion of the
32commission to modify an electrical corporation’s reporting
33requirements.
No reimbursement is required by this act pursuant to
35Section 6 of Article XIII B of the California Constitution because
36the only costs that may be incurred by a local agency or school
37district will be incurred because this act creates a new crime or
38infraction, eliminates a crime or infraction, or changes the penalty
39for a crime or infraction, within the meaning of Section 17556 of
40the Government Code, or changes the definition of a crime within
P4 1the meaning of Section 6 of Article XIII B of the California
2Constitution.
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