Amended in Senate August 4, 2014

California Legislature—2013–14 Regular Session

Assembly Bill No. 2761

Introduced by Committee on Utilities and Commerce (Bradford (Chair), Bonilla, Buchanan, Garcia, Roger Hernández, Mullin, Quirk, and Rendon)

March 24, 2014

An act to amend begin delete Section 910 end delete begin insert Sections 910 and 911 end insert of the Public Utilities Code, relating to the Public Utilities Commission.

LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL’S DIGEST

AB 2761, as amended, Committee on Utilities and Commerce. Public Utilities Commission: report: renewable energy resources.

Existing law requires the Public Utilities Commission, by February 1 of each year, to prepare and submit to the policy and fiscal committees of the Legislature a report on specified topics generally relating to the fiscal impact of renewable energy programs on electrical corporations.

This bill would instead require the commission to submit the report to the policy and fiscal committees of the Legislature by begin delete April end delete begin insert end insert begin insert May end insert 1 of each year. begin insert The bill would make other nonsubstantive clarifying revisions to this reporting requirement. end insert

begin insert

Existing law requires the commission by no later than February 1, 2012, and annually thereafter, to release to the Legislature the costs of all electricity procurement contracts for eligible renewable energy resources and all costs for utility-owned generation approved by the commission, as specified.

end insert begin insert

This bill would require that the commission release this information to the Legislature by May 1 of each year.

end insert

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

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

SECTION 1.  

Section 910 of the Public Utilities Code is
amended to read:

910.  

(a) By begin delete April end delete begin insert May end insert 1 of each year, the commission shall
prepare and submit to the policy and fiscal committees of the
Legislature a written report summarizing the following information:

(1) All electrical corporation revenue requirement increases
associated with meeting the renewables portfolio standard, as
defined in Section 399.12, including direct procurement costs for
eligible renewable energy resources and renewable energy credits,
administrative expenses for procurement, expenses incurred to
ensure a reliable supply of electricity, and expenses for upgrades
to the electrical transmission and distribution grid necessary to the
delivery of electricity from eligible renewable energy resources
to load.

(2) All cost savings experienced, or costs avoided, by electrical
corporations as a result of meeting the renewables portfolio
standard.

(3) All costs incurred by electrical corporations for incentives
for distributed and renewable generation, including the
self-generation incentive program, the California Solar Initiative,
and net energy metering.

(4) All cost savings experienced, or costs avoided, by electrical
corporations as a result of incentives for distributed and renewable
generation.

(5) All begin insert pending requests by an electrical corporation seeking
recovery in rates for end insert renewable, fossil fuel, and nuclear
procurement costs, research, study, or pilot program begin delete costs, or other
program costs for which an electrical corporation is seeking
recovery in rates, that is pending determination or approval by the
commission. end delete begin insert costs. end insert

(6) The decision number for each decision of the commission
begin delete of end delete begin insert authorizing end insert recovery in rates of costs incurred by an electrical
corporation since the preceding report.

(7) Any change in the electrical load serviced by an electrical
corporation since the preceding report.

(8) The efforts each electrical corporation is taking to recruit
and train employees to ensure an adequately trained and available
workforce, including the number of new employees hired by the
electrical corporation for purposes of implementing the
requirements of Article 16 (commencing with Section 399.11) of
Chapter 2.3, the goals adopted by the electrical corporation for
increasing women, minority, and disabled veterans trained or hired
for purposes of implementing the requirements of Article 16
(commencing with Section 399.11) of Chapter 2.3, and, to the
extent information is available, the number of new employees
hired and the number of women, minority, and disabled veterans
trained or hired by persons or corporations owning or operating
eligible renewable energy resources under contract with an
electrical corporation. This paragraph does not provide the
commission with authority to engage in, regulate, or expand its
authority to include, workforce recruitment or training.

(b) The commission may combine the information required by
this section with the reports prepared pursuant to Article 16
(commencing with Section 399.11) of Chapter 2.3.

begin insert

begin insert SEC. 2. end insert   

end insert

begin insert Section 911 of the end insert begin insert Public Utilities Code end insert begin insert is amended
to read: end insert

911.  

(a) Notwithstanding subdivision (g) of Section 454.5 and
Section 583, no later than begin delete February 1, 2012, and annually
thereafter, end delete begin insert May 1 of each year, end insert the commission shall release to the
Legislature the costs of all electricity procurement contracts for
eligible renewable energy resources, including unbundled
renewable energy credits, and all costs for utility-owned generation
approved by the commission. The first report shall include all costs
commencing January 1, 2003. Subsequent reports shall include
only costs for the preceding calendar year.

(1) For power purchase contracts, the commission shall release
costs in an aggregated form categorized according to the year the
procurement transaction was approved by the commission, the
eligible renewable energy resource type, including bundled
renewable energy credits, the average executed contract price, and
average actual recorded costs for each kilowatthour of production.
Within each renewable energy resource type, the commission shall
provide aggregated costs for different project size thresholds.

(2) For each utility-owned renewable generation project, the
commission shall release the costs forecast by the electrical
corporation at the time of initial approval and the actual recorded
costs for each kilowatthour of production during the preceding
calendar year.

(b) This section does not require the release of the terms of any
individual electricity procurement contracts for eligible renewable
energy resources, including unbundled renewable energy credits,
approved by the commission. The commission shall aggregate
data to the extent required to ensure protection of the confidentiality
of individual contract costs even if this aggregation requires
grouping contracts of different energy resource type. The
commission shall not be required to release the data in any year
when there are fewer than three contracts approved.

(c) The commission may combine the information required by
this section with the report prepared pursuant to Section 910, as
added by Chapter 1 of the First Extraordinary Session of the
Statutes of 2011.