California Legislature—2015–16 Regular Session

Assembly Bill No. 1773

Introduced by Assembly Member Obernolte

February 3, 2016

An act to amend Section 2830 of the Public Utilities Code, relating to renewable energy.

LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL’S DIGEST

AB 1773, as introduced, Obernolte. Local government renewable energy self-generation program.

Under existing law, the Public Utilities Commission is vested with regulatory authority over public utilities. Existing law authorizes a local governmental entity, except a joint powers authority, to receive a bill credit to a designated benefiting account, for electricity exported to the electrical grid by an eligible renewable generating facility and requires the commission to adopt a rate tariff for the benefiting account.

This bill would include as a local governmental entity for this purpose a joint powers authority.

Under existing law, a violation of the Public Utilities Act or an order or direction of the commission is a crime. Because the provisions of this bill would require an order or other action of the commission to implement and a violation of that order or action would be a crime, the bill would impose a state-mandated local program by creating a new 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.  

Section 2830 of the Public Utilities Code is
amended to read:

2830.  

(a) As used in this section, the following terms have the
following meanings:

(1) “Benefiting account” means an electricity account, or more
than one account, located within the geographical boundaries of
a local government or, for a campus, within the geographical
boundary of the city, county, or city and county in which the
campus is located, that is mutually agreed upon by the local
government or campus and an electrical corporation.

(2) “Bill credit” means an amount of money credited to a
benefiting account that is calculated based upon the time-of-use
electricity generation component of the electricity usage charge
of the generating account, multiplied by the quantities of electricity
generated by an eligible renewable generating facility that are
exported to the grid during the corresponding time period.
Electricity is exported to the grid if it is generated by an eligible
renewable generating facility, is not utilized onsite by the local
government, and the electricity flows through the meter site and
on to the electrical corporation’s distribution or transmission
infrastructure.

(3) “Campus” means an individual community college campus,
individual California State University campus, or individual
University of California campus.

(4) “Eligible renewable generating facility” means a generation
facility that meets all of the following requirements:

(A) Has a generating capacity of no more than five megawatts.

(B) Is an eligible renewable energy resource, as defined in
Article 16 (commencing with Section 399.11) of Part 1.

(C) Is located within the geographical boundary of the local
government or, for a campus, within the geographical boundary
of the city or city and county, if the campus is located in an
incorporated area, or county, if the campus is located in an
unincorporated area.

(D) Is owned by, operated by, or on property under the control
of the local government or campus.

(E) Is sized to offset all or part of the electrical load of the
benefiting account. For these purposes, premises that are leased
by a local government or campus are under the control of the local
government or campus.

(5) “Generating account” means the time-of-use electric service
account of the local government or campus where the eligible
renewable generating facility is located.

(6) “Local government” means a city, county, whether general
law or chartered, city and county, special district, school district,
political subdivision, or other local public agency, begin delete but shall not
mean end delete begin insert including end insert a joint powers authority, begin insert but shall not mean end insert the
state or any agency or department of the state, other than an
individual campus of the University of California or the California
State University.

(b) Subject to the limitation in subdivision (h), a local
government may elect to receive electric service pursuant to this
section if all of the following conditions are met:

(1) The local government designates one or more benefiting
accounts to receive a bill credit.

(2) A benefiting account receives service under a time-of-use
rate schedule.

(3) The benefiting account is the responsibility of, and serves
property that is owned, operated, or on property under the control
of the same local government that owns, operates, or controls the
eligible renewable generating facility.

(4) The electrical output of the eligible renewable generating
facility is metered for time of use to allow calculation of the bill
credit based upon when the electricity is exported to the grid.

(5) All costs associated with the metering requirements of
paragraphs (2) and (4) are the responsibility of the local
government.

(6) All costs associated with interconnection are the
responsibility of the local government. For purposes of this
paragraph, “interconnection” has the same meaning as defined in
Section 2803, except that it applies to the interconnection of an
eligible renewable generating facility rather than the energy source
of a private energy producer.

(7) The local government does not sell electricity exported to
the electrical grid to a third party.

(8) All electricity exported to the grid by the local government
that is generated by the eligible renewable generating facility
becomes the property of the electrical corporation to which the
facility is interconnected, but shall not be counted toward the
electrical corporation’s total retail sales for purposes of Article 16
(commencing with Section 399.11) of Chapter 2.3 of Part 1.
Ownership of the renewable energy credits, as defined in Section
399.12, shall be the same as the ownership of the renewable energy
credits associated with electricity that is net metered pursuant to
Section 2827.

(9) An electrical corporation shall not be required to compensate
a local government for electricity generated from an eligible
renewable facility pursuant to this section in excess of the bill
credits applied to the designated benefiting account. A local
government renewable generation facility participating pursuant
to this section shall not be eligible for any other tariff or program
that requires an electrical corporation to purchase generation from
that facility while participating in the local government renewable
energy self-generation program pursuant to this section.

(c) (1) A benefiting account shall be billed for all electricity
usage, and for each bill component, at the rate schedule applicable
to the benefiting account, including any cost-responsibility
surcharge or other cost recovery mechanism, as determined by the
commission, to reimburse the Department of Water Resources for
purchases of electricity, pursuant to Division 27 (commencing
with Section 80000) of the Water Code.

(2) The bill shall then subtract the bill credit applicable to the
benefiting account. The generation component credited to the
benefiting account shall not include the cost-responsibility
surcharge or other cost recovery mechanism, as determined by the
commission, to reimburse the Department of Water Resources for
purchases of electricity, pursuant to Division 27 (commencing
with Section 80000) of the Water Code. The electrical corporation
shall ensure that the local government receives the full bill credit.

(3) If, during the billing cycle, the generation component of the
electricity usage charges exceeds the bill credit, the benefiting
account shall be billed for the difference.

(4) If, during the billing cycle, the bill credit applied pursuant
to paragraph (2) exceeds the generation component of the electricity
usage charges, the difference shall be carried forward as a financial
credit to the next billing cycle.

(5) After the electricity usage charge pursuant to paragraph (1)
and the credit pursuant to paragraph (2) are determined for the last
billing cycle of a 12-month period, any remaining credit resulting
from the application of this section shall be reset to zero.

(d) The commission shall ensure that the transfer of a bill credit
to a benefiting account does not result in a shifting of costs to
bundled service subscribers. The costs associated with the transfer
of a bill credit shall include all billing-related expenses.

(e) Not more frequently than once per year, and upon providing
the electrical corporation with a minimum of 60 days’ notice, the
local government may elect to change a benefiting account. Any
credit resulting from the application of this section earned prior to
the change in a benefiting account that has not been used as of the
date of the change in the benefiting account shall be applied, and
may only be applied, to a benefiting account as changed.

(f) A local government shall provide the electrical corporation
to which the eligible renewable generating facility will be
interconnected with not less than 60 days’ notice prior to the
eligible renewable generating facility becoming operational. The
electrical corporation shall file an advice letter with the commission
that complies with this section not later than 30 days after receipt
of the notice proposing a rate tariff for a benefiting account. The
commission, within 30 days of the date of filing, shall approve the
proposed tariff or specify conforming changes to be made by the
electrical corporation to be filed in a new advice letter.

(g) The local government may terminate its election pursuant
to subdivision (b), upon providing the electrical corporation with
a minimum of 60 days’ notice. Should the local government sell
its interest in the eligible renewable generating facility, or sell the
electricity generated by the eligible renewable generating facility,
in a manner other than required by this section, upon the date of
either event, and the earliest date if both events occur, no further
bill credit pursuant to paragraph (3) of subdivision (b) may be
earned. Only credit earned prior to that date shall be made to a
benefiting account.

(h) An electrical corporation is not obligated to provide a bill
credit to a benefiting account that is not designated by a local
government prior to the point in time that the combined statewide
cumulative rated generating capacity of all eligible renewable
generating facilities within the service territories of the state’s
three largest electrical corporations reaches 250 megawatts. Only
those eligible renewable generating facilities that are providing
bill credits to benefiting accounts pursuant to this section shall
count toward reaching this 250-megawatt limitation. Each electrical
corporation shall only be required to offer service or contracts
under this section until that electrical corporation reaches its
proportionate share of the 250-megawatt limitation based on the
ratio of its peak demand to the total statewide peak demand of all
electrical corporations.

(i) This chapter does not apply to an electrical corporation with
60,000 or fewer customer accounts.

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.