BILL ANALYSIS Ó
AB 197
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Date of Hearing: May 13, 2015
ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON APPROPRIATIONS
Jimmy Gomez, Chair
AB
197 (Eduardo Garcia) - As Amended April 29, 2015
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| |Natural Resources | |6 - 2 |
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Urgency: No State Mandated Local Program: YesReimbursable:
No
SUMMARY:
This bill revises the Renewables Portfolio Standard (RPS)
procurement process to emphasize greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions
and reliability factors. Specifically, this bill:
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1)Requires the Public Utilities Commission's (PUC) RPS
procurement process, as well as the procurement plans of
investor-owned utilities (IOUs) and publicly-owned utilities
(POUs), to consider:
a) The statewide GHG emission limit established
pursuant to AB 32.
b) Capacity and essential reliability services of the
eligible renewable energy resource to ensure grid
reliability.
2)Requires each IOU, in soliciting and procuring eligible
renewable energy resources, to consider the "best-fit"
attributes of resource types that ensure a balanced resource
mix to maintain the reliability of the grid.
3)Provides the enactment of this bill is contingent upon the
enactment of AB 645 (Williams).
FISCAL EFFECT:
1)Increased annual costs to the PUC of $800,000 per year for
five years to hire consultants to provide modeling and
analysis (special fund).
2)Increased ongoing PUC staffing costs of $226,000 (special
fund).
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3)Estimated annual costs of $157,000 for two years for
proceedings (special fund).
COMMENTS:
1)Purpose. According to the author, current law only requires a
total cost basis for ranking and selecting least-cost and
best-fit eligible renewable energy resources. This bill
requires the consideration of best-fit in addition to total
cost to ensure all available renewable energy resources, with
attributes that provide grid reliability and reduce GHG
emission, are taken into account.
2)Background. The California Renewables Portfolio Standard
program requires investor- owned utilities, local
publicly-owned utilities, and energy service providers to
increase purchases of renewable energy to at least 33% of
retail sales by December 31, 2020.
The original RPS bill, SB 1078 (Sher), Chapter 516, Statutes
of 2002, set a goal of 20 percent by 2017. SB 107 (Simitian),
Chapter 464, Statutes of 2006, accelerated the deadline for 20
percent to 2010.
SBX1 2 (Simitian), Chapter 1, Statutes of 2011-12 First
Extraordinary Session, codified the current 33 percent by 2020
RPS target and also established product content categories (or
"buckets"), which place the highest value (Bucket 1) on
renewable energy that is directly delivered into California
because it has the greatest economic, environmental and
reliability benefits.
3)Governor's objectives for 2030 and beyond. In his January 5,
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2015 Inaugural Address, Governor Brown announced the following
three objectives to be accomplished within the next 15 years:
a) Increase the RPS from one-third to 50%.
b) Reduce petroleum use in transportation fuels
up to 50%.
c) Double the efficiency of existing buildings
and make heating fuels cleaner.
This bill provides additional requirements and analysis to be
included when establishing the increased renewable electricity
procurement requirement.
1)Contingent Enactment. This bill is joined to AB 645
(Williams) which establishes an RPS target of 50% by 2030,
including interim targets of 38% by 2023 and 44% by 2026. AB
645 will also be heard in the Assembly Appropriations
Committee today.
Analysis Prepared by:Jennifer Galehouse / APPR. / (916)
319-2081
AB 197
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