BILL ANALYSIS Ó
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|SENATE RULES COMMITTEE | SB 1028|
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THIRD READING
Bill No: SB 1028
Author: Hill (D)
Amended: 5/31/16
Vote: 21
SENATE ENERGY, U. & C. COMMITTEE: 9-0, 4/5/16
AYES: Hueso, Morrell, Cannella, Hertzberg, Hill, Lara, Leyva,
McGuire, Pavley
NO VOTE RECORDED: Gaines, Wolk
SENATE APPROPRIATIONS COMMITTEE: 7-0, 5/27/16
AYES: Lara, Bates, Beall, Hill, McGuire, Mendoza, Nielsen
SUBJECT: Electrical corporations: local publicly owned
electric utilities: electrical cooperatives:
wildfire mitigation plans
SOURCE: Author
DIGEST: This bill requires the California Public Utilities
Commission (CPUC)-regulated utilities to file wildfire
mitigation plans and requires the CPUC to vote to approve and
audit those plans. This bill also requires publicly owned
utilities (POU) and electrical cooperatives to determine their
risk of catastrophic wildfire that can be caused by their lines
and equipment and, if a risk exists, submit wildfire mitigation
plans to their governing board for its approval. This bill
provides a POU or electrical cooperative, at the discretion of
their governing board, may utilize a federally approved fire
prevention plan to meet the requirements of the wildfire
mitigation plan.
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ANALYSIS:
Existing law:
1) Provides that the CPUC has regulatory authority over public
utilities, including electric corporations. (California
Constitution, Article 3 and 4)
2) Requires the CPUC to develop formal procedures to
incorporate safety in a rate case application by an
electrical corporation or gas corporations. (Public
Utilities Code §750)
3) Requires the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) to
issue licenses to any state or municipality or others, for
the purposes of constructing, operating and maintaining dams,
water conduits, reservoirs, and transmission lines to improve
navigation and to develop power from streams and other bodies
of water over which it has jurisdiction. (16 United States
Code § 797 (e))
This bill:
1) Establishes a new chapter in the Public Utilities Code to
address wildfire mitigation and requires each electrical
corporation to construct, maintain and operate its electrical
lines and equipment in a manner that will minimize the risk
of catastrophic wildfire posed by electrical lines and
equipment.
2) Requires electrical corporations to annually prepare a
wildfire mitigation plan for the upcoming compliance period,
which would begin roughly at the start of the fall fire
season.
3) Requires the wildfire mitigation plan to include specified
information, including: accounting of responsible persons for
executing the plan, a description of the preventive
strategies and programs to be adopted by the electrical
corporation to minimize the risk of its electric systems
causing catastrophic wildfires, the metrics that will be used
to evaluate the plan's performance, how it will monitor and
audit the plan, and any other information required by the
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CPUC.
4) Requires the CPUC to accept, accept provisionally, or reject
the electrical corporation's wildfire mitigation plan as
expeditiously as possible, but no later than 30 days before
the start of the compliance period.
5) Requires the CPUC when it provisionally accepts a plan to
include any limitations or conditions, the timespan the
provisional acceptance will be in force, and other
requirements.
6) Requires the CPUC when rejecting an electrical corporation's
plan to allow them to resubmit a plan within 30 days.
7) Authorizes the CPUC to determine the contents of the
electrical corporation's plan if the CPUC determines they
will not be able to prepare an acceptable plan.
8) Requires the CPUC to conduct audits to determine if the
electrical corporation is satisfactorily complying with its
plan.
9) Authorizes the CPUC to contract with a third-party to
conduct audits, evaluate plans or conduct inspections, and to
require the electrical corporation to reimburse for any
related expenses.
10)Requires each POU and electrical cooperative to construct,
maintain, and operate its electrical lines and equipment in a
manner that will minimize the risk of catastrophic wildfire
posed by those electrical lines and equipment.
11)Requires the governing board of the local POU or electrical
cooperative to determine, in consultation with fire
department(s) or relevant agencies, whether any portion of
the geographical area where the utility's overhead lines and
equipment are located poses a significant risk of
catastrophic wildfire from electrical lines and equipment and
requires the utility to present to its governing board, at an
interval determined by the governing board, for its approval
wildfire mitigation measures that the utility will undertake.
12)Provides that a POU or electrical cooperative may utilize a
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fire mitigation plan submitted and approved by the FERC as
part of the conditions of its license to operate or utilize
power from a dam to meet the requirements of developing and
approving wildfire mitigation measures.
Background
California wildfire and electric systems. In October of 2007, a
series of large wildfires ignited and burned hundreds of
thousands of acres in several counties in Southern California.
The fires displaced nearly one million residents, destroyed
thousands of homes, and took the lives of ten people and an
additional seven who died from efforts to evacuate or from other
fire-related causes. Among the fires was the Witch Fire, one of
the nation's most damaging, which was ignited by power lines.
More recently, the September 2015 Butte Fire - which burned over
70,000 acres in Amador and Calaveras Counties, destroyed 818
structures, and caused two fatalities - was caused by contact
between an electric overhead line and a tree. According to CAL
FIRE, power lines were the second-leading cause of wildfires in
2013. Electrical equipment can act as an ignition source,
including downed power lines, arcing, and conductor contact with
trees. Although electric systems do not routinely cause
catastrophic fires, they are known to cause hundreds of small
fires every year. Risks for wildfires have also increased with
the extended drought and bark beetle infestation that has
increased tree mortalities and, as a result, increased the risk
and fuel for wildfires.
CPUC efforts to address wildfires. After the 2007 fires ravaged
several areas of the state, in 2008, the CPUC initiated
rulemaking proceeding to address fires related to utility poles.
The CPUC's efforts have resulted in additional requirements on
utilities to reduce the likelihood of fires started by or
threatening utility facilities, including improved vegetation
management, as well as, requiring the utilities to develop
electric utility fire prevention plans. The first phase also
adopted fire hazard maps of high-risk areas in Southern
California. In May 2015, the CPUC opened a new rulemaking
proceeding to develop and adopt fire-threat maps and fire-safety
regulations (R. 15-05-006). The CPUC tasked CAL FIRE to
oversee and select outside experts to develop a more refined
statewide fire hazard map. As noted in the Scoping Memo, the
fire-threat map will be based on approximately 150 terabytes of
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fire-weather data, which will be used to run millions of fire
simulations to build a high resolution, statewide fire-treat
map. The CPUC and CAL FIRE have conducted workshops to solicit
feedback on the draft map. After a couple of delays, a final
map was issued February 2016. Additionally, the CPUC conducted a
safety en banc related to utility pole safety on April 28, 2016,
in Los Angeles. The agenda for the en banc included
representatives from CAL FIRE, electric utilities,
communications utilities and providers and other stakeholders.
Performance-based rules vs. prescriptive rules. As noted, the
CPUC's rulemaking efforts to address wildfires and electric
systems have been active since 2008, with several phases, in two
separate proceedings. As the author notes, these efforts have
resulted in the adoption of rules that require prescriptive
standards - such as dictating clearances between power lines and
trees. The author advocates for the need to establish
performance, or risk-based, safety rules that focus on the
identification of hazards, sets goals and provides utilities
flexibility in how to achieve the goals. This approach would be
akin to the CPUC efforts to address pipeline safety after the
PG&E San Bruno fatal explosion. A performance-based approach,
according to the author, would stand in contrast to a
prescriptive approach which has experienced long delays in
assessing individual measures. However, it is reasonable that
the two approaches do not need to be mutual exclusive. The
recommendations in this bill to require electrical corporations
to develop mitigation plans and have them appropriately
evaluated by the CPUC can both compliment and be informed by the
CPUC's efforts to establish prescriptive measures.
Existing federal requirements for some projects. Recent author
amendments provide POUs and electrical cooperatives greater
discretion to utilize the fire mitigation and response plan
developed as a condition of the permit to operate a dam under
federal jurisdiction, as is the case for the Sacramento
Municipal Utility District (SMUD). Specifically, the FERC issued
SMUD a 50-year license to operate the Upper American River
Project on July 23, 2014. U.S Forest Service 4(e) Condition No.
60 in the License, and Article 1-34 in the FERC Relicensing
Settlement Agreement for the project, require that within one
year of license issuance, SMUD shall file with FERC a Fire
Prevention and Response Plan developed in consultation with
appropriate state and local fire agencies and approved by the
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U.S. Forest Service. With these amendments, SMUD may utilize
this plan to help meet the requirements of this bill.
Related/Prior Legislation
SB 1463 (Moorlach) requires the CPUC, in consultation with the
CAL FIRE, to use specified criteria in determining areas that
are at high risk from wildfires and require undergrounding of
any replacement, relocation or construction of transmission,
subtransmission, and distribution systems in those areas. The
bill is on the Senate Floor.
FISCAL EFFECT: Appropriation: No Fiscal
Com.:YesLocal: Yes
According to the Senate Appropriations Committee:
Approximately $617,000 (Public Utilities Commission Utilities
Reimbursement Account) to the CPUC for staffing, training, and
equipment costs.
Approximately $250,000 annually for three years to contract
with a fire mitigation consultant.
SUPPORT: (Verified 5/31/16)
Rural County Representatives of California
OPPOSITION: (Verified5/31/16)
None received
ARGUMENTS IN SUPPORT: The author comments that the CPUC opened
a proceeding meant to address wildfire prevention more than
seven years ago. In the proceeding the electric and
telecommunications utilities have continued to be allowed to
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postpone discussion of increased construction standards in high
wildfire risk areas. Contrast the slowness of the CPUC's
regulatory proceeding with that of the electric safety regulator
in the Australian state of Victoria in response to catastrophic
"Black Saturday" bush fires of 2009. California's electric
utilities currently file annual fire prevention plans with the
CPUC, but these plans are of varying quality, have never been
evaluated to determine their adequacy, and have never been
audited.
Prepared by:Nidia Bautista / E., U., & C. / (916) 651-4107
5/31/16 22:11:40
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