BILL NUMBER: SB 699 AMENDED
BILL TEXT
AMENDED IN ASSEMBLY MARCH 25, 2014
AMENDED IN ASSEMBLY MARCH 12, 2014
AMENDED IN ASSEMBLY AUGUST 7, 2013
AMENDED IN ASSEMBLY JUNE 19, 2013
AMENDED IN SENATE MAY 8, 2013
AMENDED IN SENATE APRIL 4, 2013
INTRODUCED BY Senator Hill
FEBRUARY 22, 2013
An act to add Sections 761.4 and 761.6 to
amend Section 364 of the Public Utilities Code, relating to
public utilities.
LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST
SB 699, as amended, Hill. Public utilities: electrical and gas
corporations.
Under existing law, the Public Utilities Commission has regulatory
authority over public utilities, including electrical corporations,
as defined. Existing law requires the commission to adopt inspection,
maintenance, repair, and replacement standards for the distribution
systems of electrical corporations in order to provide high-quality,
safe, and reliable service. Existing law requires the commission to
conduct a review to determine whether the standards have been met and
to perform the review after every major outage.
This bill would require the commission to adopt rules to address
security threats to the distribution systems of electrical
corporations, to be adopted by the commission with inspection,
maintenance, repair, and replacement standards no later than July 1,
2015.
The Public Utilities Act requires the Public Utilities Commission
to implement and enforce standards for the maintenance and operation
of facilities for the generation of electricity owned by an
electrical corporation or located in the state to ensure their
reliable operation.
This bill would require an electrical corporation, by July 1,
2015, to submit to the commission a security plan to enhance the
robustness and resilience of its electrical distribution facilities.
The bill would require the commission, in consultation with the
electrical corporation and applicable local, state, and federal
agencies to determine the appropriate level of public access to the
security plan. The bill would require the commission to consider the
cost of constructing distribution infrastructure necessary to
implement the security plan as a part of the next general rate case
for the electrical corporation.
This bill would require an electrical or gas corporation to
develop an official memorandum of understanding with state and local
law enforcement officials describing each party's responsibilities
before, during, and immediately following the deliberate destruction
of that corporation's equipment that leads to a disruption of
electric or gas service. The bill would require an electrical or gas
corporation, after consultation with, and approval from, the
Department of the California Highway Patrol, to train and designate
relevant employees as first responders to manage infrastructure
hazards and restore essential electric or gas service in the event of
an accident, natural disaster, or security breach.
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.
Because the provisions of this bill are within the act and
require action by the commission to implement its requirements
, a violation of these provisions would impose a state-mandated
local program by creating a new 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 1. The Legislature finds and declares all
of the following:
(a) Physical or electronic threats to the electrical distribution
system could threaten public health and safety and disrupt economic
activity in California.
(b) Ensuring appropriate actions are taken to protect and secure
vulnerable electrical distribution system assets from physical or
electronic threats that could disrupt safe and reliable electric
service, or disrupt essential public services, including safe
drinking water supplies, are in the public interest.
(c) Proper planning, in coordination with the appropriate federal
and state regulatory and law enforcement authorities, will help
prepare for attacks on the electrical distribution system and thereby
help reduce the potential consequences of such attacks.
SEC. 2. Section 364 of the Public
Utilities Code is amended to read:
364. (a) The commission shall adopt inspection, maintenance,
repair, and replacement standards , and adopt rules to address
security threats, for the distribution systems of
investor-owned electric utilities no later than March 31, 1997
electrical corporations by no later than July 1, 2015
. The standards, which shall be performance or prescriptive
standards, or both, and may be based on risk management,
as appropriate, for each substantial type of distribution equipment
or facility, shall provide for high quality, safe
high-quality, safe, and reliable service.
(b) In setting its standards, the commission shall consider: cost,
local geography and weather, applicable codes, potential
security threats, national electric industry practices, sound
engineering judgment, and experience. The commission shall also adopt
standards for operation, reliability, and safety during periods of
emergency and disaster. The commission shall require each
utility electrical corporation to report
annually on its compliance with the standards. That report shall be
made available to the public.
(c) The commission shall conduct a review to determine whether the
standards prescribed in this section have been met. If the
commission finds that the standards have not been met, the commission
may order appropriate sanctions, including penalties in the form of
rate reductions or monetary fines. The review shall be performed
after every major outage. Any money collected pursuant to this
subdivision shall be used to offset funding for the California
Alternative Rates for Energy Program.
SECTION 1. Section 761.4 is added to the Public
Utilities Code, to read:
761.4. (a) On or before July 1, 2015, an electrical corporation
shall submit to the commission a security plan to enhance the
robustness and resilience of its electrical distribution facilities
that identifies improvements to achieve all of the following:
(1) Make the electric power delivery system less vulnerable to
security threats, whether physical, cyber, or personnel-related,
which may include the hardening of key substations and control
centers, increased physical surveillance, and increased air gapping
of electronic communication and control systems.
(2) Reduce the consequence of successful security breaches, which
may include more robust substation and grid design, infrastructure
modernization, and selective demandside management.
(3) Improve the speed of electric power restoration in the event
of a successful security breach, which may include enhanced training
of relevant personnel, improved blackstart capability, and
acquisition of convenient locations for critical spare parts.
(4) Make critical services less vulnerable while the delivery of
conventional electric power has been disrupted, which may include the
avoidance of cross dependencies and the collocation of generation or
storage with critical loads such as pumps for water supply.
(b) In developing the security plan, an electrical corporation
shall consider improvements that can be incorporated cost-effectively
and consistently with reductions or increases in local generation
capacity needs, safety and reliability needs, planned efforts to
promote distributed resources, demandside management, smart grid, and
other security efforts undertaken at the regional and national
level.
(c) The commission, in consultation with the electrical
corporation and applicable local, state, and federal agencies, shall
determine an appropriate level of public access to the security plan
submitted by the electrical corporation that is consistent with
Section 583 and existing commission policies. A determination that
the commission makes regarding public access to security plans shall
not create barriers to essential information sharing among local,
state, and federal law enforcement and emergency response agencies.
The commission shall make this determination before accepting the
security plan from an electrical corporation.
(d) The commission shall review each security plan and approve, or
modify and approve, the plan for that electrical corporation.
(e) The commission shall consider the costs of constructing
distribution infrastructure necessary to implement the security plan
as a part of the next general rate case for the electrical
corporation unless the commission determines otherwise. The
commission may adopt criteria, benchmarks, and accountability
mechanisms to evaluate the success of any investment authorized
pursuant to the security plan.
SEC. 2. Section 761.6 is added to the Public
Utilities Code, to read:
761.6. (a) An electrical or gas corporation shall develop an
official memorandum of understanding with state and local law
enforcement officials that describes each party's responsibilities
before, during, and immediately following the deliberate destruction
of the electrical or gas corporation's equipment that leads to a
disruption of electric or gas service. The memorandum of
understanding shall provide a clear understanding of who is in charge
and explain how decisions will be reached in dealing with potential
tensions between crime scene investigation and timely restoration of
service, as well as with unanticipated contingencies.
(b) An electrical or gas corporation, after consultation with, and
approval from, the Department of the California Highway Patrol,
shall train and designate relevant employees as first responders to
manage infrastructure hazards and restore essential electric and gas
service in the event of an accident, natural disaster, or security
breach. The Department of the California Highway Patrol may impose
any requirements necessary to ensure that the designation of relevant
electrical or gas corporation employees promotes public health,
safety, and security.
SEC. 3. 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.