BILL ANALYSIS Ó
AB 33
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CONCURRENCE IN SENATE AMENDMENTS
AB
33 (Quirk)
As Amended August 19, 2016
Majority vote
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|ASSEMBLY: | |(June 3, 2015) |SENATE: |39-0 |(August 23, |
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(vote not relevant)
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|COMMITTEE VOTE: |14-0 |(August 30, |RECOMMENDATION: |concur |
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(U. & C.)
Original Committee Reference: NAT. RES.
SUMMARY: Requires the California Public Utilities Commission
(CPUC), in coordination with the California Energy Commission
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(CEC), to evaluate and analyze the potential for all types of
long duration bulk energy storage resources.
The Senate amendments delete the previous content of the bill
and replace it with the following:
1)Require the CPUC, in coordination with the CEC, as part of a
new or existing proceeding, to evaluate and analyze the
potential for all types of long duration bulk energy storage
resources to help integrate renewable generation into the
electrical grid.
2)Require, as part of the evaluation, the CPUC to assess the
potential costs and benefits of all types of long duration
bulk energy storage resources, including impacts to the
transmission and distribution systems of location-specific
long duration bulk energy storage resources.
EXISTING LAW:
1)Defines "load-serving entity" as an electrical corporation,
electric service provider, or community choice aggregator.
(Public Utilities Code Section 380)
2)Requires the CPUC, on or before March 1, 2012, to open a
proceeding to determine appropriate targets, if any, for each
load-serving entity to procure viable and cost-effective
energy storage systems to be achieved by December 31, 2015,
and December 31, 2020. Requires the governing board of each
local publicly owned electric utility, on or before March 1,
2012, to initiate a process to determine appropriate targets,
if any, for the utility to procure viable and cost-effective
energy storage systems to be achieved by December 31, 2016,
and December 31, 2020. As part of the proceeding, the CPUC or
local publicly owned electric utility governing board may
consider a variety of possible policies to encourage the
cost-effective deployment of energy storage systems, including
refinement of existing procurement methods to properly value
energy storage systems. (Public Utilities Code Section 2836)
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3)Requires the CPUC and the CEC in furtherance of meeting the
state's clean energy and pollution reduction objectives to,
among others, where feasible, authorize procurement of
resources to provide grid reliability services that minimize
reliance on system power and fossil fuel resources and, where
feasible, cost effective, and consistent with other state
policy objectives, increase the use of large- and small-scale
energy storage with a variety of technologies, targeted energy
efficiency, demand response, including, but not limited to,
automated demand response, eligible renewable energy
resources, or other renewable and nonrenewable technologies
with zero or lowest feasible emissions of greenhouse gases,
criteria pollutants, and toxic air contaminants onsite to
protect system reliability. (Public Utilities Code Section
400)
FISCAL EFFECT: According to the Senate Appropriations
Committee, pursuant to Senate Rule 28.8, negligible state costs.
COMMENTS:
1)Background: A distinctive characteristic of electric power is
that the supply of electricity that can be generated
throughout a day is relatively fixed over short periods of
time, whereas, demand for electricity fluctuates throughout
the day. Developing electricity storage devices and other
technology, such as pump storage systems or battery storage,
to store excess generation can help in addressing demand
during peak load.
2)AB 2514 (Skinner): In 2010, the Legislature passed AB 2514
(Skinner), Chapter 469, Statutes of 2010, which required the
CPUC to determine appropriate targets, if any, for load
serving entities to procure energy storage systems and
required those load serving entities to meet any targets
adopted by the CPUC by 2015 and 2020. AB 2514 also required
publicly owned utilities to set their own targets for the
procurement of energy storage and meet those targets by 2016
and 2021. In December 2010, the CPUC opened Rulemaking (R.)
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10-12-007 to implement the provision of AB 2514. R.10-12-007
established an energy storage procurement target of 1,325
megawatts (MW) to be procured by the Pacific Gas and Electric
Company, the Southern California Edison Company, and the San
Diego Gas and Electric Company by 2020.
3)Large-Scale Pumped Storage Projects: As part of R.10-12-007,
the CPUC excluded large-scale pumped storage projects from the
energy storage system procurement mechanisms established as
directed by AB 2514. According to the CPUC, because the
majority of pumped storage projects are 500 MW and over, a
single project in a utility service territory could be used to
reach the energy storage procurement targets. Hence, the CPUC
felt that the sheer size of pumped storage projects would
dwarf other smaller, emerging technologies and would inhibit
the fulfillment of market transformation goals, contrary to
the intent of AB 2514.
Opponents argued that large-scale pumped storage met the
definition of eligible energy storage system under statute and
because AB 2514 did not specify any size limitations, the CPUC
was improperly favoring certain energy storage technologies
over others. The CPUC argued that AB 2514 allows the CPUC to
consider a variety of possible policies to encourage the
cost-effective deployment of energy storage systems; hence,
the CPUC must adopt policies and procedures that would provide
opportunities for the cost-effective deployment of all types
of energy storage technologies.
Although statute does not exclude large pumped facilities from
being eligible to meet the energy storage procurement targets
adopted by the CPUC, the concern is that utilities could
simply rely on a few very large pumped hydroelectric storage
facilities to reach its targets, which could harm smaller,
still developing storage technologies. This is not to say
that pump storage serves as a complete counter to other
storage technologies such as batteries, for example, pumped
storage may not be effective during local power outages
resulting from infrastructure or network failures, whereas
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battery storage could provide customers with power until
repairs are made to the system.
This bill requires the CPUC, in coordination with the CEC, to
evaluate and analyze the potential for all types of long
duration bulk energy storage resources, as specified.
Analysis Prepared by:
Edmond Cheung / U. & C. / (916) 319-2083 FN:
0004996