BILL ANALYSIS
Senate Appropriations Committee Fiscal Summary
Senator Christine Kehoe, Chair
2514 (Skinner)
Hearing Date: 08/02/2010 Amended: 08/02/2010
Consultant: Brendan McCarthy Policy Vote: EU&C 8-2
AB 2514 (Skinner), Page 2
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BILL SUMMARY: AB 2514 requires the Public Utilities Commission
to determine appropriate targets, if any, for load serving
entities to procure energy storage systems. The bill requires
load serving entities to meet any targets adopted by the
Commission by 2015 and 2020. The bill requires publicly owned
utilities to set their own targets for the procurement of energy
storage and then meet those targets by 2016 and 2021.
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Fiscal Impact (in thousands)
Major Provisions 2010-11 2011-12 2012-13 Fund
Setting of targets and $1,000 $1,000 $1,000 Special
*
overseeing compliance
* Public Utilities Commission Utilities Reimbursement Account.
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STAFF COMMENTS: SUSPENSE FILE. AS PROPOSED TO BE AMENDED.
Under current law, load serving entities (including both
investor owned utilities and energy service providers) are
regulated by the Public Utilities Commission. Current law
requires load serving entities to increase their procurement of
renewable energy by one percent per year, such that renewable
energy sources make up twenty percent of a load serving entity's
electricity supply by December 31, 2011. This requirement is
referred to as the Renewable Portfolio Standard. Current law
exempts publicly owned utilities from the Renewable Portfolio
Standard and instead requires publicly owned utilities to
implement their own renewable energy plans.
AB 2514 requires the Public Utilities Commission to determine
the appropriate targets, if any, for load serving entities to
procure energy storage systems. The Commission is required to
develop the targets by October 1, 2013. Load serving entities
are required to meet those targets, if any, by 2015 and 2020.
The bill requires publicly owned utilities to establish their
own targets for procurement of energy storage systems by October
1, 2014 and meet those targets, if any, by 2016 and 2021.
AB 2514 (Skinner), Page 2
Publicly owned utilities are required to report their progress
in meeting their targets to the Energy Commission.
The bill requires investor owned utilities to integrate the
energy storage system targets into their renewable energy
procurement plans.
The bill's requirements do not apply to investor owned utilities
that provide electric service to customers outside California
and have 60,000 or fewer customers inside California.
The Public Utilities Commission indicates that in order to
develop targets and oversee the implementation of those targets
by load serving entities, it will need about $1,000,000 per year
in additional staff resources.
The bill requires the Commission to ensure that any energy
system procurement targets are technically viable and
cost-effective. However, the bill does not provide any criteria
for cost-effectiveness of energy storage systems. To the extent
that energy storage systems are more expensive than other
electricity supply options, the bill may impose additional costs
on utilities that will be passed on to ratepayers. The extent of
this impact on ratepayers is unknown, and will depend on the
targets adopted by the Public Utilities Commission and the
future costs of energy storage systems.
The author's proposed amendments make technical corrections to
the bill.