BILL ANALYSIS Ó
SENATE COMMITTEE ON ENERGY, UTILITIES AND COMMUNICATIONS
Senator Ben Hueso, Chair
2015 - 2016 Regular
Bill No: SB 502 Hearing Date: 4/7/2015
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|Author: |Leno |
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|Version: |2/26/2015 As Introduced |
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|Urgency: |No |Fiscal: |Yes |
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|Consultant:|Nidia Bautista |
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SUBJECT: San Francisco Bay Area Rapid Transit District:
purchase and delivery of electricity.
DIGEST: This bill will allow the San Francisco Bay Area Rapid
Transit District (BART) to purchase wholesale electricity from a
renewable energy resource that is eligible under California's
Renewable Portfolio Standard (RPS).
ANALYSIS:
Existing law:
1. Requires any electric utility which owns and operates
transmission and distribution facilities that deliver
electricity to BART, upon request by BART, to deliver
preference power purchased from a federal power marketing
agency or local publicly-owned utility (POU). (Public
Utilities Code §701.8)
2. Requires the electric utility to bill BART as though all
the electricity purchased were metered by a single meter at
one location. (Public Utilities Code §701.8)
3. Provides that any lease entered into between BART and an
electrical utility, for special facilities to receive power
at transmission level voltages, cannot be terminated
without BART's consent. (Public Utilities Code §701.8)
4. Requires investor-owned utilities (IOUs), electric
service providers, and community choice aggregators (CCA)
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to increase procurement from eligible renewable energy
resources to 33 percent of total procurement by 2020.
(Public Utilities Code §399.11 et seq.)
5. Requires California to reduce its greenhouse gas (GHG)
emissions to 1990 levels by 2020. (Health and Safety Code
§38500)
Background
BART is a regional light rail system that includes 104 route
miles of track and 44 stations serving communities in the Bay
Area region, including the counties of Alameda, Contra Costa,
San Francisco, and San Mateo. BART averages nearly 400,000
weekday trips, each trip averaging a distance of 14 miles. The
BART system provides nearly half of all transit passenger miles
travelled in the Bay Area.
BART trains are 100 percent electric. According to the "BART
Green Factsheet," clean hydroelectric power and renewable
resources account for 53 percent of the power BART uses.
Specifically, the BART District procures electricity from a
local POU, the Northern California Power Agency (NCPA), a
federal agency known as the Western Area Power Administration
(WAPA), a 2.5 MW solar facility through an NCPA arrangement, and
net energy metered solar electric generation located at three
BART facilities. BART is the cleanest transit system in the
country as defined by the carbon dioxide emissions per passenger
mile (based on a 2007 National Transit Database joint analysis
by the Federal Transportation Agency, U.S. Department of Energy
and U.S. Environmental Protection Agency).
Up until the passage of SB 184 (Kopp, 1995), BART was procuring
all its energy from the region's IOU, PG&E. SB 184 allowed BART
to procure electricity directly from the federal power marketing
authority. Under the federal Reclamation Project Act of 1939,
BART qualifies as a preference entity to purchase and receive
hydropower from the Central Valley Project (CVP). Additionally,
SB 1838 (Kopp, 1998) exempts BART District's preference from
federal power delivery from statutes and California Public
Utilities Commission (CPUC) regulations governing direct access
transactions related to electric power. While the bills provided
for BART to diversify its sources of energy, they also require
BART to compensate PG&E for the use of its transmission and
distributed network under tariffs regulated by the Federal
SB 502 (Leno) Page 3 of ?
Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) and the CPUC.
While BART maintains the least carbon emitting transit system in
the country, the BART District Board is interested in further
reducing the system's carbon footprint while balancing costs
that could raise fare prices. However, current law limits BART's
ability to procure more renewable energy as those procurements
would need to be done through a third party transaction, such as
the federal power marketing authority or a local POU.
Comments
Has This Train Left the Station ? Prior legislation provided BART
the unique opportunity to procure energy directly from sources
other than the local regulated utility, while continuing to
compensate the local regulated utility for the transmission and
distribution costs associated with the delivery of service. SB
502 does not impact any of those prior arrangements. Instead, as
currently written, the bill would merely add eligible renewable
resources to the list of energy sources that can be procured by
BART.
Amendments:
1) The author and committee may consider amending the bill
to further narrow the definition of eligible renewable
energy sources to the specific definition in the state's
RPS.
Additional Consideration . Should this bill move forward, the
author and committee may wish to ensure continued consistency
with pending legislation with regards to the definition of
eligible renewable energy resources.
Prior/Related Legislation
SB 184 (Kopp, Chapter 681, Statutes of 1995), allows BART to
procure electricity directly from the federal power marketing
authority.
SB 1838 (Kopp, Chapter 206, Statutes of 1998), exempts BART
District's preference from federal power delivery from statutes
and CPUC regulations governing direct access transactions
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related to electric power.
SB X1-2 (Simitian, Chapter 1, Statutes of 2011), requires all
electricity retailers in the state including POUs, IOUs,
electricity service providers, and CCA to adopt new RPS goals.
Specifically: that 20 percent of electricity retail sales are
served by renewable energy resources by 2013, 25 percent by the
end of 2016 and 33 percent by 2020.
AB 32 (Pavley/Nunez, Chapter 488, Statutes of 2006), California
Global Warming Solutions Act requires California to reduce GHG
emissions to 1990 levels by 2020.
SB 350 (De León) proposes to create or expand three related
clean-energy goals, including updating the state's RPS to 50
percent of total retail sales of electricity from renewable
resources by 2030.
FISCAL EFFECT: Appropriation: No Fiscal
Com.: Yes Local: No
SUPPORT:
Clean Power Campaign
Coalition for Clean Air
Environment California
Northern California Power Agency
San Francisco Bay Area Rapid Transit District
Sierra Club California
Solar Energy Industries Association
Union of Concerned Scientists
Vote Solar
OPPOSITION:
None on file.
ARGUMENTS IN SUPPORT: The BART Board of Directors has voted
to work towards increasing the District's use of renewable
energy. However, they argue that current state law limits the
sources from which BART can procure renewable electricity. The
author argues that SB 502 would provide BART added flexibility
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to procure additional renewable resources should it choose to do
so. The author states that the existing arrangements to
compensate the local regulated utility for transmission and
distribution costs would be maintained. SB 502 would allow BART
to contribute to the state's goals and efforts to further reduce
carbon emissions.
ARGUMENTS IN OPPOSITION: None on file.
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