BILL NUMBER: AB 1108 AMENDED
BILL TEXT
AMENDED IN SENATE AUGUST 17, 2009
AMENDED IN SENATE JULY 15, 2009
AMENDED IN SENATE JUNE 29, 2009
AMENDED IN ASSEMBLY JUNE 1, 2009
AMENDED IN ASSEMBLY MAY 4, 2009
AMENDED IN ASSEMBLY APRIL 22, 2009
INTRODUCED BY Assembly Member Fuentes
FEBRUARY 27, 2009
An act to amend Sections 739.5, 2791, 2796, and 2797 of, to repeal
Sections 2793, 2794, 2795, and 2799 of, and to repeal and add
Sections 2792 and 2798 of, the Public Utilities Code, relating to
utility service.
LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST
AB 1108, as amended, Fuentes. Electric and gas utility service:
master-meter customers.
(1) Under existing law, the Public Utilities Commission has
regulatory authority over public utilities, including electrical
corporations and gas corporations. Existing law requires that, when
gas or electric service is provided by a master-meter customer to
users who are tenants of a mobilehome park, apartment building, or
similar residential complex, the master-meter customer charge each
user at the same rate that would be applicable if the user were
receiving gas or electricity directly from the gas or electrical
corporation. Existing law additionally requires the electrical or gas
corporation to establish uniform rates to master-meter customers at
a level that will provide a sufficient differential to cover the
reasonable average costs to master-meter customers of providing
submeter service, except that these costs shall not exceed the
average cost that the corporation would have incurred in providing
comparable services directly to the users of the service
(master-meter discount). Existing law provides that every
master-meter customer is responsible for the maintenance and repair
of its submeter facilities beyond the master-meter
master meter .
This bill would make the existing provisions of law relating to
master-meter customers applicable only to master-meter customers
providing submetered service to tenants of an apartment building or
similar multifamily residential dwelling. The bill would adopt
separate provisions that are applicable to a master-meter customer
that provides submetered service to tenants of a mobilehome park or
manufactured housing community prior to any transfer of
responsibility for gas or electric service to the gas or
electrical corporation, as described below . These provisions
would authorize the commission, if it finds that a master-meter
customer has failed to maintain or repair its submeter facilities
beyond the master-meter master meter ,
to order the master-meter customer to maintain or repair those
facilities and would authorize require
the commission, in addition to the commission's authority to make or
enforce orders pursuant to the Public Utilities Act, to order that
certain moneys received as a result of the master-meter discount be
held in trust to be expended for maintenance and repair of the
submetered facilities of the mobilehome park or manufactured housing
community. The bill would require a master-meter customer to
separately bill tenants of a mobilehome park or manufactured housing
community for gas or electric service, or both, and rent, and would
prohibit the master-meter customer from charging a user of
electricity or gas any late charge for nonpayment or delayed payment
of rent. The bill would require that any late charge imposed by a
master-meter customer for nonpayment or delayed payment by a user for
gas or electric service at a mobilehome park or manufactured housing
community be in an amount that does not exceed that which the
electrical or gas corporation would charge for nonpayment or delayed
payment for electric or gas service.
(2) Existing law authorizes the owner of a master-metered
mobilehome park or manufactured housing community that provides gas
or electric service to residents to transfer ownership and
operational responsibility for its gas or electric system to the gas
or electrical corporation providing service in the area in which the
park or community is located, pursuant to specified transfer and cost
allocation procedures.
This bill would require the owner of a master-metered mobilehome
park or manufactured housing community that provides gas or electric
service to residents or the park or community to transfer
ownership and operational responsibility for
its gas or electric system
service, along with those plant, facilities, and interests in real
property that the gas or electrical corporation determines are
necessary, convenient, or cost effective to provide service, to
the gas or electrical corporation providing service in the area in
which the park or community is located. The bill would authorize
the gas or electrical corporation to acquire, improve, upgrade,
repair, or replace those plant and facilities the gas or electrical
corporation determines are necessary, convenient, or cost effective
to provide service and undertake the responsibility for operating and
maintaining them. The bill would require the electrical corporation
to pay just compensation for those plant, facilities, and
property rights that the gas or electrical corporation acquires.
The bill would require the commission, by January 1, 2010, to
open a proceeding to adopt rules that establish the terms
and conditions for the transfers authorize gas and
electrical corporations to extend corporation- owned
lines, plant, facilities, and systems to provide service consistent
with applicable laws, standards, and rules , that balance
certain goals and requirements. The commission would be required
to establish a procedure for identifying mobilehome parks and
manufactured housing communities with unsafe or substandard gas or
electric systems and , in coordination with the
Department of Housing and Community Development and the county
departments of weights and measures, to establish a recommended
phase-in schedule for improving, upgrading, repairing, or replacing
those unsafe or substandard systems and to prioritize the
transfer of gas or electric systems with unsafe or substandard
conditions. The bill would require the commission , consistent
with the commission's standard ratemaking practices, to permit
the gas or electrical corporation to recover, in its revenue
requirements and rates, the costs the commission finds reasonable
to acquire, improve, and upgrade transferred mobilehome park
or manufactured housing community gas or electric systems and would
require, to the extent practical, that these costs be collected over
2 rate case cycles, rather than in a single cycle. The bill would
require the commission, by January 1, 2012, to adopt a standard form
agreement for transfer of gas and electric systems in mobilehome
parks and manufactured housing communities, based upon the rules
adopted by the commission, that would be the basis for expedited
approval of the transfers. The bill would require that transfers
commence as soon as the standard contract is available, to proceed
according to the process adopted by the commission for
the corporation's improvement, upgrade, repair, replacement,
acquisition, operation, and maintenance of plant, facilities, and
interests in real property to serve the mobilehome park or
manufactured housing community and the tenants of the park or
community .
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 its requirements would be a crime, the bill would impose
a state-mandated local program by creating a new crime.
(3) 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 739.5 of the Public Utilities Code is amended
to read:
739.5. (a) (1) The commission shall require that, if gas or
electric service, or both, is provided by a master-meter customer to
users who are tenants of an apartment building or similar multifamily
residential dwelling, the master-meter customer shall charge each
user of the service at the same rate that would be applicable if the
user were receiving gas or electricity, or both, directly from the
gas or electrical corporation.
(2) The commission shall require the gas or electrical corporation
furnishing service to the master-meter customer to establish uniform
rates for master-meter service at a level that will provide a
sufficient differential to cover the reasonable average costs to
master-meter customers of providing submeter service at an apartment
building or similar multifamily residential dwelling, except that
these costs shall not exceed the average cost that the corporation
would have incurred in providing comparable services directly to the
users of the service.
(b) Every master-meter customer of a gas or electrical corporation
subject to subdivision (a) who receives any rebate from the
corporation shall distribute to, or credit to the account of, each
current user served by the master-meter customer that portion of the
rebate which the amount of gas or electricity, or both, consumed by
the user during the last billing period bears to the total amount
furnished by the corporation to the master-meter customer during that
period.
(c) An electrical or gas corporation furnishing service to a
master-meter customer shall furnish to each user of the service
within a submetered system at an apartment building or similar
multifamily residential dwelling every public safety customer service
which it provides beyond the meter to its other residential
customers. The corporation shall furnish a list of those services to
the master-meter customer, who shall post the list in a conspicuous
place accessible to all users. Every corporation shall provide these
public safety customer services to each user of electrical or gas
service under a submetered system without additional charge unless
the corporation has included the average cost of these services in
the rate differential provided to the master-meter customer on
January 1, 1984, in which case the commission shall deduct the
average cost of providing these public safety customer services when
approving rate differentials for master-meter customers.
(d) Every master-meter customer at an apartment building or
similar multifamily residential dwelling is responsible for
maintenance and repair of its submeter facilities beyond the
master-meter, and nothing in this section requires an electrical or
gas corporation to make repairs to or perform maintenance on the
submeter system.
(e) Every master-meter customer at an apartment building or
similar multifamily residential dwelling shall provide an itemized
billing of charges for electricity or gas, or both, to each user
generally in accordance with the form and content of bills of the gas
or electrical corporation to its residential customers, including,
but not limited to, the opening and closing readings for the meter,
and the identification of all rates and quantities attributable to
each block in the applicable rate structure. The master-meter
customer shall also post, in a conspicuous place, the applicable
prevailing residential gas or electrical rate schedule, as published
by the corporation.
(f) The commission shall require that every electrical and gas
corporation shall notify each master-meter customer at an apartment
building or similar multifamily residential dwelling of its
responsibilities to its users under this section.
(g) The commission shall accept and respond to complaints
concerning the requirements of this section through the consumer
affairs branch, in addition to any other staff that the commission
deems necessary to assist the complainant. In responding to the
complaint, the commission shall consider the role that the office of
the county sealer in the complainant's county of residence may have
in helping to resolve the complaint and, where appropriate,
coordinate with that office.
(h) Notwithstanding any other provision of law or decision of the
commission, the commission shall not deny eligibility for the
California Alternate Rates for Energy (CARE) program, created
pursuant to Section 739.1, for a residential user of gas or electric
service who is a submetered resident or tenant served by a
master-meter customer on the basis that some residential units in the
master-meter customer's apartment building or similar multifamily
residential dwelling do not receive gas or electric service through a
submetered system.
SEC. 2. Section 2791 of the Public Utilities Code is amended to
read:
2791. (a) The owner of a master-metered
mobilehome park or manufactured housing community that provides gas
or electric service to residents shall transfer ownership
and operational responsibility for the gas or electric
system service, along with those plant,
facilities, and interests in real property that the gas or electrical
corporation determines are necessary, convenient, or cost effective
to provide service, to the gas or electrical corporation
providing service in the area in which the park or community is
located located. The gas or electrical
corporation may acquire, improve, upgrade, repair, or replace its
plant and facilities the gas or electrical corporation determines are
necessary, convenient, or cost effective to provide service and
undertake the responsibility for operating and maintaining them. The
transfer shall take place pursuant to this chapter, or as the
park or community owner and the serving gas or electrical corporation
mutually agree.
(b) The owner of a master-metered mobilehome park or manufactured
housing community shall provide to the gas or electrical corporation
all rights-of-way, rights of ingress and egress, and other property
rights that the gas or electrical corporation requires or determines
are necessary to complete the evaluation and improvement, upgrade,
repair, or replacement of the gas or electric system and to maintain
and operate the system.
(c) A gas or electrical corporation shall not be required,
pursuant to this chapter, to acquire those plant and facilities that
are part of a submetered system that are beyond the master meter that
the gas or electrical corporation determines are not necessary,
convenient, or cost effective to providing gas or electric service to
tenants of the mobilehome park or manufactured housing community.
(d) The gas or electrical corporation shall pay just compensation
for those plant, facilities, and property rights that the gas or
electrical corporation acquires. The Legislature finds and declares
that improvements, upgrades, repairs, or replacement of facilities by
the gas or electrical corporation benefit not only the tenants of
the mobilehome park or manufactured housing community, through safer
and more reliable service, but also the owner of the park or
community. It is the intent of the Legislature that the compensation
paid by the gas or electrical corporation to the owner of the park or
community shall reflect the benefits provided to the owner as a
result of improvements, upgrades, repairs, or replacement of
facilities by the gas or electrical corporation.
SEC. 3. Section 2792 of the Public Utilities Code is repealed.
SEC. 4. Section 2792 is added to the Public Utilities Code, to
read:
2792. (a) (1) The commission shall , prior to transfer,
require that, if gas or electric service, or both, is
provided by a master-meter customer to users who are tenants of a
mobilehome park or manufactured housing community, the master-meter
customer shall charge each user of the service at the same rate that
would be applicable if the user were receiving gas or electricity, or
both, directly from the gas or electrical corporation.
(2) The commission shall, prior to transfer
any transfer of responsibility for gas or electric
service to the gas or electrical corporation , require the gas
or electrical corporation furnishing service to the master-meter
customer to establish uniform rates for master-meter service at a
level that will provide a sufficient differential to cover the
reasonable average costs to master-meter customers of providing
submeter service to tenants of a mobilehome park or manufactured
housing community, except that these costs shall not exceed the
average cost that the corporation would have incurred in providing
comparable services directly to the users of the service.
(b) Every master-meter customer of a gas or electrical corporation
subject to subdivision (a) who receives any rebate from the
corporation shall distribute to, or credit to the account of, each
current user served by the master-meter customer that portion of the
rebate which the amount of gas or electricity, or both, consumed by
the user during the last billing period bears to the total amount
furnished by the corporation to the master-meter customer during that
period.
(c) A gas or electrical corporation furnishing service to a
master-meter customer shall, prior to transfer, furnish to each user
of the service within a submetered system of a mobilehome park or
manufactured housing community, every public safety customer service
which it provides beyond the meter to its other residential
customers. The corporation shall furnish a list of those services to
the master-meter customer, who shall post the list in a conspicuous
place accessible to all users. Every corporation shall provide these
public safety customer services to each user of gas or electrical
service under a submetered system without additional charge unless
the corporation has included the average cost of these services in
the rate differential provided to the master-meter customer on
January 1, 1984, in which case the commission shall deduct the
average cost of providing these public safety customer services when
approving rate differentials for master-meter customers.
(d) (1) Prior to transfer
(c) (1) Prior to
any transfer of responsibility for gas or electric service to the gas
or electrical corporation , every master-meter customer
providing submetered service to tenants of a mobilehome park or
manufactured housing community is responsible for maintenance and
repair of its submetered facilities beyond the master-meter, and
nothing in this section requires a gas or electrical corporation,
prior to transfer any transfer of
responsibility for gas or electric service to the gas or electrical
corporation , to make repairs to or perform maintenance on the
submetered system.
(2) If the commission finds, prior to transfer, that a
master-meter customer any transfer of responsibility
for gas or electric service to the gas or electrical corporation,
that a master-metered mobilehome park or manufactured housing
community owner has failed to maintain or repair its submetered
facilities beyond the master-meter, the commission may order the
master-meter customer to maintain or repair those facilities.
(3) In addition to any authority granted the commission to make or
enforce orders pursuant to Chapter 11 (commencing with Section 2100)
of Part 1, if the commission finds, prior to transfer, that
a master-meter customer any transfer of responsibility
for gas or electric service to the gas or electrical corporation,
that a master-metered mobilehome park or manufactured housing
community owner has failed to maintain or repair its submetered
facilities beyond the master-meter, the commission may
shall order the portion of the rate differential
established pursuant to subdivision (a) for an electric plant or a
gas plant be held in trust to be expended for maintenance and repair
of the submetered facilities.
(e) (1) Every master-meter customer shall, prior to transfer,
(d) Every master-meter customer shall,
prior to any transfer of responsibility for gas or electric service
to the gas or electrical corporation, provide an itemized
billing of charges for gas or electricity, or both, to each user
generally in accordance with the form and content of bills of the gas
or electrical corporation to its residential customers, including,
but not limited to, the opening and closing readings for the meter,
and the identification of all rates and quantities attributable to
each block in the applicable rate structure. The master-meter
customer shall also post, in a conspicuous place, the applicable
prevailing residential gas or electrical rate schedule, as published
by the corporation.
(2) Notwithstanding any other provision of law, prior to transfer
of the submetered system to the gas or electrical corporation, a
master-meter customer shall separately bill each user for gas or
electric service, or both, and rent.
(3) A master-meter customer shall not, prior to transfer of the
submetered system to the gas or electrical corporation, charge a user
of gas or electricity any late charge for gas or electric service as
a result of nonpayment or delayed payment of rent. For nonpayment or
delayed payment of gas or electric service by a user, the
master-meter customer may impose a late charge up to an amount that
does not exceed that which the gas or electrical corporation would
charge for nonpayment or delayed payment for gas or electric service.
(f) The commission shall require that every gas and electrical
corporation notify each master-meter customer of its responsibilities
to its users under this section.
(g) The commission shall accept and respond to complaints
concerning the requirements of this section through the consumer
affairs branch, in addition to any other staff that the commission
deems necessary to assist the complainant. In responding to the
complaint, the commission shall consider the role that the office of
the county sealer in the complainant's county of residence may have
in helping to resolve the complaint and, where appropriate,
coordinate with that office.
(h) Notwithstanding any other provision of law or decision of the
commission, the commission shall not deny eligibility for the
California Alternate Rates for Energy (CARE) program, created
pursuant to Section 739.1, for a residential user of gas or electric
service who is a submetered resident or tenant served by a
master-meter customer on the basis that some residential units in the
master-meter customer's mobilehome park or manufactured housing
community do not receive gas or electric service through a submetered
system.
SEC. 5. Section 2793 of the Public Utilities Code is repealed.
SEC. 6. Section 2794 of the Public Utilities Code is repealed.
SEC. 7. Section 2795 of the Public Utilities Code is repealed.
SEC. 8. Section 2796 of the Public Utilities Code is amended to
read:
2796. (a) During the pendency of a transfer of
responsibility for gas or electric service , the owner of the
park or community shall be responsible for the continued maintenance
to preserve the integrity of the park or community gas or electric
system and safe and reliable operation of the park or community
system in accordance with applicable laws.
laws, until the gas or electrical corporation has completed its
improvements, upgrades, repairs, or replacement of the submetered
system, at which time the owner of the park or community
shall transfer to the gas or electrical corporation all remaining
property rights that the gas or electrical corporation requires or
determines are necessary, convenient, or cost effective to enable the
gas or electrical corporation to do both of the following:
(1) Provide gas or electric service to the park or community.
(2) Provide gas or electric service to the end-use customers in
the park or community.
(b) During the pendency of a transfer of responsibility for
gas or electric service , the owner of the park or community
shall be liable for injury and damage resulting from operation of the
submetered gas and electric system. After transfer
completion of the transf er of
responsibility for gas or electric service, including the transfer of
property rights pursuant to subdivision (a) , the gas or
electrical corporation shall assume responsibility for operation of
the gas or electric system and provision of service to residents of
the park or community and shall assume liability for any future
injury or damage resulting from operation of the gas or
electric system except with respect to defects known to the park or
community owner and not disclosed to the gas or electrical
corporation during the transfer of ownership process.
electric system. The gas or electrical corporation shall bear no
legal or financial responsibility or liability for the master-metered
gas or electric system of an owner of a park or community, its
operation or maintenance, including any environmental
contamination that may have been caused by the park or community, or
any injury to person or property resulting from the gas or electric
system or its operation, nor shall the gas or electrical corporation
be liable for any claim relating to any expected timing of the
replacement of the gas or electric system.
SEC. 9. Section 2797 of the Public Utilities Code is amended to
read:
2797. The commission shall , consistent with the commission'
s standard ratemaking practices, permit the gas or electrical
corporation to recover in its revenue requirement and rates the costs
the commission finds reasonable to acquire, improve, and
upgrade transferred for the corporation's improvement,
upgrade, repair, replacement, acquisition, operation, and
maintenance of plant, facilities, and interests in real property to
serve the mobilehome park or manufactured housing community
gas or electric systems, as well as the reasonable costs
associated with operating and maintaining the transferred systems.
and the tenants of the park or community.
SEC. 10. Section 2798 of the Public Utilities Code is repealed.
SEC. 11. Section 2798 is added to the Public Utilities Code, to
read:
2798. (a) By January 1, 2010, the commission shall open a
proceeding to adopt rules that establish the terms and
conditions, including cost responsibilities, for the transfers
required by authorize gas and electrical corporations
to extend corporation-owned lines, plant, facilities, and systems,
consistent with applicable laws, standards, and rules for service and
line extensions to provide service consistent with the requirements
of Section 2791. The rules shall balance the goal of making
residents of mobilehome parks and manufactured housing communities
customers of record of the serving gas or electrical corporation
as expeditiously as possible within a
reasonable period of time, when the transfer of responsibility for
gas or electric service is the result of unsafe or substandard
submetered facilities, the factors described in this section,
and the requirement of fairness to the gas or electrical
corporation's ratepayers, who have already reimbursed the
master-meter customer for maintenance costs, operating costs, return
on investment, and depreciation, as well as other costs associated
with providing submetered electric and gas service, through the rate
differential afforded master-meter customers pursuant to Section
739.5.
(b) In adopting rules governing the transfers required by Section
2791, the commission shall also adopt a process for ordering the
transfers transfer of any plant, facilities,
and property rights that the gas or electrical corporation determines
are necessary, convenient, or cost effective to provide gas or
electric s ervice and to ensure that any reasonable
costs associated with acquiring, improving, or upgrading the
gas or electric systems that the gas or electrical
corporation's improvement, upgrade, repair, replacement, acquisition,
operation, and maintenance of plant and facilities to serve the
mobilehome park or manufactured housing community and the tenants of
the park or community will be borne by the ratepayers of the
serving gas or electrical corporation are collected in rates
over two rate case cycles, rather than in a single cycle, to the
extent practicable. The commission, in coordination with the
Department of Housing and Community Development and the county
departments of weights and measures, shall prioritize the transfer of
mobilehome parks and manufactured housing communities that have gas
or electric systems with unsafe or substandard conditions.
(c) By January 1, 2012, the commission shall adopt a standard form
of agreement for transfer of a gas or electric system in a
mobilehome park or manufactured housing community, based on the rules
adopted in the proceeding required by this section, that shall be
the basis for expedited approval of the transfers. Transfers shall
commence as soon as the standard contract is available and proceed
according to the process adopted by the commission.
rates. The commission shall establish a procedure fo r
identifying mobilehome parks and manufactured housing communities
with unsafe or substandard gas or electric systems, shall establish a
recommended phase-in schedule for improving, upgrading, repairing,
or replacing those unsafe or substandard systems, and shall
prioritize, in coordination with the Department of Housing and
Community Development and the county department of weights and
measures, the transfer of those gas or electric systems with unsafe
or substandard conditions. The phase-in schedule shall take into
account the overall feasibility of the schedule, the impact on
resources of the gas or electrical corporation required to implement
improvements, upgrades, repairs, or replacements, the necessity for
coordination of different entities that provide gas and electric
service to the master-meter customer, and the financial impact,
including the impact on rates. The gas or electrical corporation
shall improve, upgrade, repair, or replace the gas or
electric system in a manner that conforms to all applicable state and
federal codes, standards, regulations, rules, and laws respecting
gas and electric systems and consistent with the standards the gas or
electrical corporation uses for other facilities it owns, operates,
and maintains, and construction to those standards is reasonable for
purposes of Article 1 (commencing with Section 451) of Chapter 3 and
Article 2 (commencing with Section 727) of Chapter 4 of Part 1.
(c) To the maximum extent feasible, the commission shall establish
a recommended phase-in schedule in conjunction with the gas or
electrical corporation's next general rate case proceeding and shall
establish rates that take into account the anticipated costs of
implementing the phase-in schedule established pursuant to
subdivision (b). The commission shall promptly allow further
adjustment of rates to reflect additional costs reasonably incurred
in implementing this chapter, including additional capital
investments.
(d) The commission shall require, as a condition for the transfers
required by Section 2791, that the gas or electrical corporation
accept as a customer of the utility, with no deposits or other
consideration, any tenant of the mobilehome park or manufactured
housing community who, prior to the transfer, received gas or
electric service from the master-metered customer when requirements
for establishing service are met as provided in the corporation's
applicable rules and tariffs.
SEC. 12. Section 2799 of the Public Utilities Code is repealed.
SEC. 13. 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.
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