BILL ANALYSIS Ó
AB 1295
Page 1
ASSEMBLY THIRD READING
AB 1295 (Roger Hernández)
As Amended May 29, 2013
Majority vote
UTILITIES & COMMERCE 14-0
APPROPRIATIONS 17-0
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|Ayes:|Bradford, Patterson, |Ayes:|Gatto, Harkey, Bigelow, |
| |Bonilla, Buchanan, | |Bocanegra, Bradford, Ian |
| |Chávez, Fong, | |Calderon, Campos, |
| |Beth Gaines, Garcia, | |Donnelly, Eggman, Gomez, |
| |Gorell, | |Hall, Ammiano, Linder, |
| |Roger Hernández, Jones, | |Pan, Quirk, Wagner, Weber |
| |Quirk, Rendon, Williams | | |
| | | | |
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SUMMARY : Requires an electrical corporation to offer customers
an option to assign a payment from an electrical corporation to
a subscribing customer from eligible renewable facilities in the
form of a bill credit.
FISCAL EFFECT : According to the Assembly Appropriations
Committee, increased costs to Public Utilities Committee (PUC)
of approximately $200,000 (special fund) to authorize and
evaluate the program.
COMMENTS :
1)Author's Statement . "The purpose of AB 1295 is to provide
electric customers who want to serve their energy needs with a
greater proportion of renewable energy the option to subscribe
to a portion of output from a renewable facility and receive a
credit on their bill related to that subscription, without
requiring other customers to pay more."
2)Designated electricity . This bill would create a program
where a utility customer could elect to receive their
electricity from an independent renewable developer,
presumably to use renewable energy beyond that which is
already currently available through investor owned utilities
(IOUs) resource mix. The transaction would be implemented on
the customer's electricity bill. Qualified projects under
contract to the utility can be designated as a community
AB 1295
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renewable facility. Once designated, payments for electricity
generation that would otherwise be remitted to the developer
would instead be remitted to the utility customer, per the
direction of the developer. The payments would appear as a
bill credit on the customer's monthly utility bill.
3)33% renewable electric generation . All customers of
electricity sellers in California are already receiving
electricity from renewable energy. Currently IOUs have
procured approximately 20% renewable generation and have
signed contracts to procure at least 33% renewable generation
by 2020, plus a contingency for project drop outs.
Renewable generation resulting from this bill would count
toward Renewable Portfolio Standard (RPS) procurement
requirements.
The bill specifies that IOUs would not be obligated to allow
direct access customers who receive distribution service from
IOU to participate in this program. Direct access customers
do not procure their electricity from IOUs.
4)Other electricity providers not required to offer comparable
programs . The provisions of this bill apply only to
electrical corporations regulated by PUC. Community Choice
Aggregators and Electricity Service Providers are not required
to offer comparable programs.
Publicly Owned Utilities may, but are not required, to offer
community solar programs. The Public Owned Utilities are not
required to offer a comparable program if they decide to offer
such a program.
5)No Cost-Shifting . This bill would not result in a shift in
costs to non-participating ratepayers. Customers electing to
receive designated electricity would continue to also
contribute to all other costs of receiving electricity service
and all other charges established by the Legislature or PUC
(such as low-income assistance programs, public purpose
programs, and charges established during the electricity
crisis of 2000-2001).
6)Allows for projects or only existing ? This bill would use
programs already approved by the Legislature or PUC from which
to draw megawatts (MWs) for this program, specifically the
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Renewable Market Adjusting Tariff (ReMat) authorized by SB 32
(Negrete-McLeod), Chapter 328, Statutes of 2009, the Renewable
Auction Mechanism (RAM) authorized by PUC, photovoltaic (PV)
programs authorized by PUC, and the Renewable Standard Tariff
(CREST) authorized by AB 1969 (Yee), Chapter 731, Statutes of
2006.
7)Evaluate participation . This bill requires PUC to evaluate
the community renewable program by January 1, 2016, to
determine whether the program should continue.
The bill requires PUC to evaluate the community renewable
program by January 1, 2016. ReMAT is not yet authorized while
RAM might be fully subscribed before this bill is enacted
(depending on the results of RAM auctions scheduled in 2013
and early 2014).
Analysis Prepared by : Susan Kateley / U. & C. / (916)
319-2083
FN: 0001041