BILL NUMBER: AB 1330 AMENDED
BILL TEXT
AMENDED IN ASSEMBLY JUNE 2, 2015
AMENDED IN ASSEMBLY APRIL 27, 2015
INTRODUCED BY Assembly Member Bloom
FEBRUARY 27, 2015
An act to add Chapter 7 (commencing with Section 8400) to Division
4.1 of the Public Utilities Code, relating to energy.
LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST
AB 1330, as amended, Bloom. Energy Efficiency Resource Standard
Act.
Under existing law, the Public Utilities Commission has regulatory
authority over public utilities, including electrical corporations
and gas corporations, as defined, while local publicly owned electric
utilities, as defined, and local publicly owned gas utilities are
under the direction of their governing boards. The Public Utilities
Act requires the Public Utilities Commission to review and accept,
modify, or reject a procurement plan for each electrical corporation
in accordance with specified elements, incentive mechanisms, and
objectives, including a showing that the electrical corporation will
first meet its unmet needs through all available energy efficiency
and demand reduction resources that are cost effective, reliable, and
feasible. The act requires the Public Utilities Commission, in
consultation with the State Energy Resources Conservation and
Development Commission, to identify all potentially achievable
cost-effective electricity efficiency savings and to establish
efficiency targets for electrical corporations to achieve pursuant to
their procurement plan. The act requires the Public Utilities
Commission, in consultation with the State Energy Resources
Conservation and Development Commission, to identify all potentially
achievable cost-effective natural gas efficiency savings and to
establish efficiency targets for gas corporations to achieve and
requires that a gas corporation first meet its unmet resource needs
through all available gas efficiency and demand reduction resources
that are cost effective, reliable, and feasible.
Existing law requires each local publicly owned electric utility,
in procuring energy, to first acquire all available energy efficiency
and demand reduction resources that are cost effective, reliable,
and feasible. Existing law additionally requires each local publicly
owned electric utility to report annually to its customers and to the
State Energy Resources Conservation and Development Commission, its
investment in energy efficiency and demand reduction programs, which
report is to include a description of programs, expenditures, and
expected and actual energy savings results. Existing law requires a
local publicly owned electric utility to be responsible for
implementing an energy efficiency program that recognizes the
Legislature's intent to encourage energy savings and greenhouse gas
emission reductions in existing residential and nonresidential
buildings, and to include in the above-described report, its status
in implementing the program.
The existing Warren-Alquist State Energy Resources Conservation
and Development Act establishes the State Energy Resources
Conservation and Development Commission. Existing law requires the
Energy Commission, on or before November 1, 2007, and every 3 years
thereafter, in consultation with the Public Utilities Commission and
local publicly owned electric utilities, in a public process that
allows input from other stakeholders, to develop a statewide estimate
of all potentially achievable cost-effective electricity and natural
gas efficiency savings and establish statewide annual targets for
energy efficiency savings and demand reduction over 10 years.
This bill would enact the Energy Efficiency Resource Standard Act.
The Public Utilities Commission, in consultation with the State
Energy Resources Conservation and Development Commission, would be
responsible for supervising the implementation of the act by
community choice aggregators, electric service providers, electrical
corporations, and gas corporations. The governing board of each local
publicly owned electric utility and local publicly owned gas
utility, in consultation with the State Energy Resources Conservation
and Development Commission, would be responsible for the
implementation of the act by the utility. The bill would require the
State Energy Resources Conservation and Development Commission, in a
public stakeholder engagement process, to determine how the energy
savings goals of the act are measured and reported. The act would
require each retail seller of electricity and gas utility, as
defined, to establish an energy efficiency resource standard that
shall increase the amount of energy efficiency resources of the
utility so that the minimum amount of incremental energy savings
achieved in any given year amounts to not less than specified
amounts. The bill would require the State Energy Resources
Conservation and Development Commission, in consultation with the
Public Utilities Commission, to adopt a cost limitation, as
necessary, for each retail seller of electricity for meeting the
energy efficiency resource standard. The bill would require the
Public Utilities Commission to establish an annual percentage of peak
demand reductions that shall be achieved through
event-based demand response and would require that annual percentage
to be achieved by retail sellers of electricity. The bill would
require that the energy savings of a retail seller of electricity or
gas utility first come from disadvantaged communities identified by
the California Environmental Protection Agency, as specified. The
bill would require each retail seller of electricity and gas utility
to annually file with the State Energy Resources Conservation and
Development Commission, a report that analyzes the energy savings
achieved by the utility during the prior year, divided by the energy
retail sales in the immediately preceding year.
Under existing law, a violation of any order, decision, rule,
direction, demand, or requirement of the commission is a crime.
Because a violation of an order or decision of the commission
implementing the bill's requirements with respect to a community
choice aggregator, electric service provider, electrical corporation,
or gas corporation would be a crime, the bill would impose a
state-mandated local program by creating a new crime. By placing
additional requirements upon local publicly owned electric and gas
utilities, the bill would impose a state-mandated local program.
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 specified reasons.
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. Chapter 7 (commencing with Section 8400) is added to
Division 4.1 of the Public Utilities Code, to read:
CHAPTER 7. ENERGY EFFICIENCY
8400. (a) This chapter shall be known, and may be cited, as the
Energy Efficiency Resource Standard Act.
(b) The commission, in consultation with the Energy Commission,
shall be responsible for supervising the implementation of this
chapter by community choice aggregators, as defined in Section 331.1,
electric service providers, electrical corporations, and gas
corporations.
(c) The governing board of each local publicly owned electric
utility and local publicly owned gas utility, in consultation with
the Energy Commission, shall be responsible for the implementation of
this chapter by the utility.
(d) The Energy Commission shall, in a public stakeholder
engagement process, determine how the energy savings goals of this
chapter are measured and reported.
8401. For purposes of this chapter, the following terms have the
following meanings:
(a) "Energy savings" means a reduction in electricity use in
kilowatthours or in fossil fuel use in thermal units.
(b) "Gas utility" means a gas corporation or local publicly owned
gas utility serving retail end-use customers in California.
(c) "Retail seller" has the same meaning as that term is defined
in Section 399.12, except that retail seller includes local publicly
owned electric utilities.
8405. (a) Each retail seller of electricity shall establish an
energy efficiency resource standard that shall increase the amount of
energy efficiency resources, inclusive of all of its energy
efficiency activities, of the utility so that the minimum amount of
incremental energy savings achieved in any given year amounts to not
less than 11/2 percent of its total retail sales of electricity by
2020, and not less than 2 percent of its total retail sales of
electricity by 2025. The total amount of incremental energy savings
shall be determined based upon the average retail sales of
electricity of the immediately preceding three years, measured in
gigawatthours per year based on comparison of the Energy Commission's
integrated energy policy reports made pursuant to Section 25302 of
the Public Resources Code.
(b) The Energy Commission, in consultation with the commission,
shall adopt a cost limitation, as necessary, for each retail seller
of electricity, for meeting the requirements of this section.
8406. (a) The commission shall establish an annual percentage of
peak demand reductions that shall be achieved through
event-based demand response.
(b) The commission shall require that community choice
aggregators, electric service providers, and electrical corporations
achieve the annual percentage established in subdivision (a).
(c) The governing board of each local publicly owned electric
utility shall be responsible for achieving the annual percentage
established in subdivision (a).
8410. Each gas utility shall establish an energy efficiency
resource standard that shall increase the amount of energy efficiency
resources, inclusive of all of its energy efficiency activities, of
the utility so that the minimum amount of incremental energy savings
achieved in any given year amounts to not less than three-fourths of
1 percent of its total system natural gas retail sales by 2020, and
not less than 1 percent of its system natural gas retail sales by
2025. The total amount of incremental energy savings shall be
determined based upon the average retail sales of natural gas of the
immediately preceding three years, measured in millions of therms per
year based on comparison of the Energy Commission's integrated
energy policy reports made pursuant to Section 25302 of the Public
Resources Code.
8415. (a) The energy savings of a retail seller of electricity or
gas utility shall first come from disadvantaged communities
identified by the California Environmental Protection Agency pursuant
to Section 39711 of the Health and Safety Code.
(b) Each retail seller of electricity and gas utility shall
annually file with the Energy Commission, a report that analyzes the
energy savings achieved by the utility during the prior year, divided
by the energy retail sales in the immediately preceding year.
SEC. 2. No reimbursement is required by this act pursuant to
Section 6 of Article XIII B of the California Constitution because a
local agency or school district has the authority to levy service
charges, fees, or assessments sufficient to pay for the program or
level of service mandated by this act or because 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.