BILL ANALYSIS Ó
SENATE COMMITTEE ON EDUCATION
Senator Carol Liu, Chair
2015 - 2016 Regular
Bill No: AB 1150
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|Author: |Levine |
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|Version: |May 14, 2015 Hearing |
| |Date: June 17, 2015 |
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|Urgency: |No |Fiscal: | Yes |
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|Consultant:|Olgalilia Ramirez |
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Subject: Energy: University of California and California State
University partnership
NOTE: This bill has been referred to the Committee on
Education and the Committee on Energy, Utilities and
Communications. A "do pass" motion should include referral to
the Committee on Energy, Utilities and Communications.
SUMMARY
This bill requests the University of California (UC) and
requires the California State University (CSU), in consultation
with the California Energy Commission (CEC) and the California
Public Utilities Commission (CPUC), to expand their partnership
with the investor-owned utilities (IOU) to include those
publicly owned utilities (POU) that choose to participate.
BACKGROUND
Existing law:
1)Establishes the UC as a public trust, administered by the
Regents and provides that statutes related to UC are
applicable only to the extent that the UC Regents make such
provisions applicable. (Constitution of California, Article
IX, Section 9)
2)Confers upon the CSU Trustees the powers, duties, and
functions with respect to the management, administration, and
control of the CSU system.
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(Education Code § 66606)
3)Requires the CEC to develop and administer a series of
programs to provide cost-effective energy efficiency and
conservation contracts, grants, and loans to eligible
entities. Additional financial assistance is available through
IOUs, as required by the PUC. (Public Resources Code §
25410-25474)
4)Requires POUs to encourage energy savings and greenhouse gas
emissions reductions in existing residential and
non-residential buildings, while taking into consideration the
effect of the program on rates, reliability, and financially
resources. (PUC § 9503)
ANALYSIS
This bill:
1)Requests the University of California (UC) and requires the
California State University (CSU), in consultation with the
California Energy Commission (CEC) and the California Public
Utilities Commission (CPUC), to do all of the following:
a) Expand their partnership with the investor-owned
utilities (IOU), known as the Energy Efficiency
Partnership, to include those publicly owned utilities
(POU) that choose to participate.
b) Create integrated and flexible programs across all the
CSU and UC facilities.
c) Evaluate projects based on their effect in reducing
emissions of greenhouse gases and the cost effectiveness in
achieving those reductions, as specified.
2)Requires the use of meter based verification in order to
reduce costs and streamlines the existing administrative
framework related to energy projects in order to accommodate
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for multiple funding sources, as specified.
3)Requires UC and CSU to report to the applicable utilities
their annual reduction in emissions of greenhouse gases as a
result of the project performed under the expanded
partnership.
4)Requires funds associated with an investor-owned energy
utility to be used only for projects that comply with CPUC
requirements at facilities located within its service
territory.
5)Makes a variety of Legislative findings and declarations
regarding UC's commitment to achieving carbon neutrality and
developing renewable energy resources through various measures
including expanding its statewide partnerships.
6)Specifies, that the provision of this bill does not affect UC
and CSU eligibility to receive or leverage resources from
various entities.
7)Defines various terms for the purposes of this bill.
STAFF COMMENTS
1)Need for the bill: According to the author, current law limits
the UC's and CSU's energy efficient program known as the
Energy Efficiency Partnership, to those campuses located
within an IOU service territory. This approach limits a POU
served campus from participating in the program. Additionally,
the program's current structure is outdated and the provisions
in this bill provide for advanced and long-lasting "deep"
energy efficient projects that will ultimately deliver ongoing
savings and assist UC and CSU in meeting their energy goals.
This bill codifies and streamlines the expanded partnership
program, proposes a new metric of carbon reduction for
evaluating energy efficiency projects and updates the existing
administrative framework related to energy efficiency programs
to accommodate future funds.
2)Energy Efficiency Partnership: In 2004 the University of
California (UC) and the California State University (CSU)
each established partnerships with California's four largest
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IOUs (Pacific Gas and Electric, San Diego Gas and Electric,
Southern California Edison and Southern California Gas
Company) to provide an energy management program and improve
the energy performance of existing buildings. As a result of
this partnership, UC has achieved an annual savings of 373
million kilowatt-hours (electricity), and 18.7 million
therms-per-year (gas) through 2014. In total, the UC has
received $63.6 million in incentives from utilities.
However, six CSU and UC campuses are unable to participate in
the Energy Efficiency Partnership given that they are located
within a publicly owned utilities (POU) service territory.
Those campuses include the University of California at Los
Angeles, University of California at Riverside, UC Davis
Medical Center, and California State University at Sacramento,
Northridge, and Los Angeles. A key difference between a public
and investor owned utility is that investor-owned utilities
(IOU) are required to use a portion of ratepayer funds for
projects that comply with California Public Utilities
Commission (CPUC) requirements. In contrast, POU's are
independent of the CPUC requirements and are regulated by
locally elected boards or city councils each with their own
methods for reaching energy saving goals. According to the UC,
the absence of the partnership incentives for POU served
campuses has limited the ability of some campuses to implement
energy efficiency projects.
This bill would help position UC and CSU campuses located
within the territories of POU's to receive incentives
generated as a result of the partnership by inviting POU's to
participate if they so choose. It is unclear if there are
implications of publicly-owned utilities participating in a
partnership with investor-owned utilities. This issue can be
explored in the next committee.
3)Prior Legislation
AB 1959 (Skinner, 2014) would have required the California
Energy Commission (CEC) to develop a financial assistance
program for energy efficiency projects on the UC and CSU
campuses. This bill died in the Senate Appropriations
Committee.
SUPPORT
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Sierra Club California
University of California
OPPOSITION
None received.
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