BILL ANALYSIS Ó
SB 43
Page 1
SENATE THIRD READING
SB 43 (Wolk)
As Amended September 3, 2013
Majority vote
SENATE VOTE :27-9
UTILITIES & COMMERCE 11-1
APPROPRIATIONS 13-1
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|Ayes:|Bradford, Bonilla, |Ayes:|Gatto, Bocanegra, |
| |Buchanan, Fong, Garcia, | |Bradford, |
| |Gorell, Roger Hernández, | |Ian Calderon, Campos, |
| |Quirk, Rendon, Skinner, | |Eggman, Gomez, Hall, |
| |Williams | |Holden, Linder, Pan, |
| | | |Quirk, Weber |
| | | | |
|-----+--------------------------+-----+--------------------------|
|Nays:|Patterson |Nays:|Donnelly |
| | | | |
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SUMMARY : Establishes, until January 1, 2019, a Green Tariff
Shared Renewables Program (Program) to allow investor-owned
utilities (IOUs) to administer a program that allows utility
customers to voluntarily purchase electricity from renewable
energy facilities. Specifically, this bill :
a)Establishes a 600 Megawatt (MW) pilot program until July 1,
2016, for a Green Tariff Shared Renewables Program to allow
customers of IOUs to purchase electricity from renewable
energy facilities and specifies program implementation
requirements with respect to valuing bill credits and how the
renewable attributes are counted in the State's Renewable
Portfolio Standard program.
b)Allocates 100 MWs to residential customers and 100 MWs for one
MW facilities located in the disadvantaged communities.
c)Allocates 20 MWs to the City of Davis.
d)Requires that the cost of the program be paid by the program
participants and establishes transparency requirements for
expenditures and revenues.
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e)Specifies that costs for this program shall not be paid by
non-participating ratepayers.
f)Specifies that IOU shareholders are not required to pay for
costs associated with this program.
g)Specifies that Community Choice Aggregators may voluntarily
offer a similar program.
h)Sunsets the provisions of this bill on January 1, 2019.
FISCAL EFFECT : According to the Assembly Appropriations
Committee, increased costs to the Public Utilities Commission
(PUC) of approximately $250,000 from the Public Utilities
Reimbursement Account (special fund) to implement and evaluate
the program.
COMMENTS :
1)Author's statement . "While rooftop solar is a strong and
growing business in California, at least 75% of households
cannot participate because they are renters and don't own
their roofs, they do not have strong enough credit, or their
roof is too small or doesn't receive enough sunlight. The same
is true of most businesses, 70% of whom rent or lease their
facilities. Despite their inability to utilize renewable
energy, these utility customers continue to pay into solar and
renewable programs that fail to benefit them. Additionally,
programs (Multi-family Affordable Solar Housing (MASH),
Single-family Affordable Solar Homes (SASH), Solar Share,
etc.) designed to benefit low-income or rental utility
customers by providing them the opportunity to utilize
renewable energy either have no room for new participants or
fail to provide consumers with access to affordable renewable
energy.
"Moreover, programs set up to offer schools and local
governments an avenue to invest in off-site renewable energy
have proven uneconomical, with too many barriers preventing
projects from penciling out. SB 43 will allow all California
households and businesses the ability to voluntarily buy up to
100% renewable power from a shared facility in their utility's
SB 43
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territory and receive a credit on their current utility bill.
SB 43 is not limited to solar but rather applies to any new
renewable facility up to 20MW in size.
"SB 43 establishes a pilot program that allows community
renewable energy facilities to sign agreements with utility
customers to sell them renewable energy, without shifting the
cost to customers who choose not to participate and without
spending state money. The pilot program will be capped at
500MW of generation."
2)Similar programs pending approval at PUC . Two utilities have
filed applications for approval of similar programs at the
PUC:
a) In January 2012 San Diego Gas and Electric (SDG&E)
applied to PUC for approval to administer a community
renewables program. This application is pending at PUC.
b) In April 2012, Pacific Gas and Electric (PG&E) applied
to PUC for approval to administer a Green Tariff Program.
In April 2013, Sierra Club California, the National Asian
American Coalition, the Coalition Of California Utility
Employees, PG&E Company, the Black Economic Council, the
Latino Business Chamber of Greater L.A., the California
Clean Energy Committee, and The Utility Reform Network
(TURN) reached a settlement on the PG&E application. The
settlement would provide for a 250 MW program that would
procure power from new renewable facilities and provide
100% renewable power to customers who voluntarily elect to
participate. The amounts paid by the customers would be
the actual cost of the new renewable generation. Customers
who do not elect to participate would pay no costs for this
program.
1)Related legislation .
a) SB 383 (Wolk) of 2011 was amended to address a subject
unrelated to community renewables.
b) SB 843 (Wolk) of 2012 died in the Assembly.
c) AB 1014 (Williams) of 2013 was held in the Senate Rules
Committee.
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d) AB 1295 (Roger Hernández) of 2013is pending the in
Senate Energy, Utilities, and Communications Committee.
Analysis Prepared by : Susan Kateley / U. & C. / (916)
319-2083
FN: 0002247