Amended in Senate July 10, 2013

Amended in Assembly May 24, 2013

Amended in Assembly April 10, 2013

California Legislature—2013–14 Regular Session

Assembly Bill No. 687

Introduced by Assembly Member Roger Hernández

February 21, 2013

An act to amend Section 365.1 of the Public Utilities Code, relating to electricity.

LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL’S DIGEST

AB 687, as amended, Roger Hernández. Electricity.

The Public Utilities Act requires the Public Utilities Commission, pursuant to electrical restructuring, to authorize and facilitate direct transactions between electricity suppliers and retail end-use customers. Statutes enacted during the energy crisis of 2000-01, authorized the Department of Water Resources, until January 1, 2003, to enter into contracts for the purchase of electricity, and to sell electricity to retail end-use customers at not more than the department’s acquisition costs and to recover those costs through the issuance of bonds to be repaid by ratepayers. That law suspended the right of retail end-use customers, other than community choice aggregators and a qualifying direct transaction customer, as defined, to acquire service through a direct transaction until the Department of Water Resources no longer supplies electricity under that law. Existing law continues the suspension of direct transactions except as expressly authorized, until the Legislature, by statute, repeals the suspension or otherwise authorizes direct transactions. Existing law requires the commission to authorize direct transactions for nonresidential end-use customers subject to a reopening schedule that will phase in over a period of not less than 3 years and not more than 5 years, and is subject to an annual maximum allowable total kilowatthour limit established, as specified, for each electrical corporation.

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 additionally require the commission, when authorizing additional direct transactions for retail nonresidential end-use customers, to provide the highest priority to acquire electric services from other providers to entities treating and remediating groundwater that a federal, state, or local agency identifies as contaminated if either the treatment or remediation is on a site listed as a Superfund site by the United States Environmental Protection Agency begin insert and is located in a disadvantaged community or severely disadvantaged community, as defined, end insert or the entity is a public drinking water system serving a disadvantaged or severely disadvantaged community. The bill would require the entity treating and remediating contaminated groundwater to use moneys saved as a result of the direct transaction for activities related to the treatment and remediation of the groundwater. Because a violation of this requirement is a crime, this 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.

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 365.1 of the Public Utilities Code is
amended to read:

365.1.  

(a) Except as expressly authorized by this section, and
subject to the limitations in subdivisions (b) and (c), the right of
retail end-use customers pursuant to this chapter to acquire service
from other providers is suspended until the Legislature, by statute,
lifts the suspension or otherwise authorizes direct transactions. For
purposes of this section, “other provider” means any person,
corporation, or other entity that is authorized to provide electric
service within the service territory of an electrical corporation
pursuant to this chapter, and includes an aggregator, broker, or
marketer, as defined in Section 331, and an electric service
provider, as defined in Section 218.3. “Other provider” does not
include a community choice aggregator, as defined in Section
331.1, and the limitations in this section do not apply to the sale
of electricity by “other providers” to a community choice
aggregator for resale to community choice aggregation electricity
consumers pursuant to Section 366.2.

(b) The commission shall allow individual retail nonresidential
end-use customers to acquire electric service from other providers
in each electrical corporation’s distribution service territory, up to
a maximum allowable total kilowatthours annual limit. The
maximum allowable annual limit shall be established by the
commission for each electrical corporation at the maximum total
kilowatthours supplied by all other providers to distribution
customers of that electrical corporation during any sequential
12-month period between April 1, 1998, and the effective date of
this section. Within six months of the effective date of this section,
or by July 1, 2010, whichever is sooner, the commission shall
adopt and implement a reopening schedule that commences
immediately and will phase in the allowable amount of increased
kilowatthours over a period of not less than three years, and not
more than five years, raising the allowable limit of kilowatthours
supplied by other providers in each electrical corporation’s
distribution service territory from the number of kilowatthours
provided by other providers as of the effective date of this section,
to the maximum allowable annual limit for that electrical
corporation’s distribution service territory. The commission shall
review and, if appropriate, modify its currently effective rules
governing direct transactions, but that review shall not delay the
start of the phase-in schedule.

(c) Once the commission has authorized additional direct
transactions pursuant to subdivision (b), it shall do both of the
following:

(1) Ensure that other providers are subject to the same
requirements that are applicable to the state’s three largest electrical
corporations under any programs or rules adopted by the
commission to implement the resource adequacy provisions of
Section 380, the renewables portfolio standard provisions of Article
16 (commencing with Section 399.11), and the requirements for
the electricity sector adopted by the State Air Resources Board
pursuant to the California Global Warming Solutions Act of 2006
(Division 25.5 (commencing with Section 38500) of the Health
and Safety Code). This requirement applies notwithstanding any
prior decision of the commission to the contrary.

(2) (A) Ensure that, in the event that the commission authorizes,
in the situation of a contract with a third party, or orders, in the
situation of utility-owned generation, an electrical corporation to
obtain generation resources that the commission determines are
needed to meet system or local area reliability needs for the benefit
of all customers in the electrical corporation’s distribution service
territory, the net capacity costs of those generation resources are
allocated on a fully nonbypassable basis consistent with departing
load provisions as determined by the commission, to all of the
following:

(i) Bundled service customers of the electrical corporation.

(ii) Customers that purchase electricity through a direct
transaction with other providers.

(iii) Customers of community choice aggregators.

(B) If the commission authorizes or orders an electrical
corporation to obtain generation resources pursuant to subparagraph
(A), the commission shall ensure that those resources meet a system
or local reliability need in a manner that benefits all customers of
the electrical corporation. The commission shall allocate the costs
of those generation resources to ratepayers in a manner that is fair
and equitable to all customers, whether they receive electric service
from the electrical corporation, a community choice aggregator,
or an electric service provider.

(C) The resource adequacy benefits of generation resources
acquired by an electrical corporation pursuant to subparagraph (A)
shall be allocated to all customers who pay their net capacity costs.
Net capacity costs shall be determined by subtracting the energy
and ancillary services value of the resource from the total costs
paid by the electrical corporation pursuant to a contract with a
third party or the annual revenue requirement for the resource if
the electrical corporation directly owns the resource. An energy
auction shall not be required as a condition for applying this
allocation, but may be allowed as a means to establish the energy
and ancillary services value of the resource for purposes of
determining the net costs of capacity to be recovered from
customers pursuant to this paragraph, and the allocation of the net
capacity costs of contracts with third parties shall be allowed for
the terms of those contracts.

(D) It is the intent of the Legislature, in enacting this paragraph,
to provide additional guidance to the commission with respect to
the implementation of subdivision (g) of Section 380, as well as
to ensure that the customers to whom the net costs and benefits of
capacity are allocated are not required to pay for the cost of
electricity they do not consume.

(d) (1) In authorizing additional direct transactions pursuant to
subdivision (b), the commission shall ensure that entities that are
currently treating and remediating groundwater that a federal, state,
or local agency previously identified as contaminated have the
highest priority in acquiring electric service by direct transactions
if either of the following apply:

(A) The treatment or remediation is at a site that is listed by the
United States Environmental Protection Agency on the National
Priorities List pursuant to the Comprehensive Environmental
Response, Compensation, and Liability Act of 1980 (42 U.S.C.
Sec. 9601 et seq.) begin insert and is located in a disadvantaged community
or severely disadvantaged community as those terms are defined
in subdivision (g) of Section 75005 of the Public Resources Code end insert
.

(B) The entity is a public drinking water system serving a
disadvantaged begin insert community end insert or severely disadvantaged community
begin insert as those terms are defined in subdivision (g) of Section 75005 of
the Public Resources Code end insert .

(2) An entity that is authorized to engage in a direct transaction
pursuant to this subdivision and subdivision (b) shall use moneys
saved as a result of the direct transaction for activities related to
treating or remediating contaminated groundwater at the site.

(3) An entity that is authorized to engage in a direct transaction
pursuant to this subdivision and subdivision (b) shall electronically
report to the Energy Division of the commission the total yearly
savings resulting from the direct transaction and the expenditure
of those savings. The commission may include this information
in the annual report required pursuant to Section 316.

(e) (1) If the commission approves a centralized resource
adequacy mechanism pursuant to subdivisions (h) and (i) of Section
380, upon the implementation of the centralized resource adequacy
mechanism the requirements of paragraph (2) of subdivision (c)
shall be suspended. If the commission later orders that electrical
corporations cease procuring capacity through a centralized
resource adequacy mechanism, the requirements of paragraph (2)
of subdivision (c) shall again apply.

(2) If the use of a centralized resource adequacy mechanism is
authorized by the commission and has been implemented as set
forth in paragraph (1), the net capacity costs of generation resources
that the commission determines are required to meet urgent system
or urgent local grid reliability needs, and that the commission
authorizes to be procured outside of the Section 380 or Section
454.5 processes, shall be recovered according to the provisions of
paragraph (2) of subdivision (c).

(3) This subdivision does not supplant the resource adequacy
requirements of Section 380 or the resource procurement
procedures established in Section 454.5.

(f) The commission may report to the Legislature on the efficacy
of authorizing individual retail end-use residential customers to
enter into direct transactions, including appropriate consumer
protections.

SEC. 2.  

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.