BILL ANALYSIS
------------------------------------------------------------
|SENATE RULES COMMITTEE | SB 488|
|Office of Senate Floor Analyses | |
|1020 N Street, Suite 524 | |
|(916) 651-1520 Fax: (916) | |
|327-4478 | |
------------------------------------------------------------
UNFINISHED BUSINESS
Bill No: SB 488
Author: Pavley (D)
Amended: 9/3/09
Vote: 21
SENATE ENERGY, U.&C. COMMITTEE : 11-0, 4/27/09
AYES: Padilla, Benoit, Calderon, Corbett, Cox, Kehoe,
Lowenthal, Simitian, Strickland, Wiggins, Wright
SENATE APPROPRIATIONS COMMITTEE : Senate Rule 28.8
SENATE FLOOR : 34-3, 6/1/09
AYES: Alquist, Ashburn, Benoit, Calderon, Cedillo,
Cogdill, Corbett, Correa, Cox, Denham, DeSaulnier,
Dutton, Hancock, Harman, Huff, Kehoe, Leno, Liu,
Lowenthal, Maldonado, Negrete McLeod, Oropeza, Padilla,
Pavley, Romero, Runner, Simitian, Steinberg, Strickland,
Wiggins, Wolk, Wright, Wyland, Yee
NOES: Aanestad, Hollingsworth, Walters
NO VOTE RECORDED: Ducheny, Florez, Vacancy
ASSEMBLY FLOOR : 68-6, 9/2/09 - See last page for vote
SUBJECT : Energy usage information
SOURCE : Author
DIGEST : This bill requires publicly-owned utilities and
investor-owned utilities that provide individual
residential electricity or gas customers with information
CONTINUED
SB 488
Page
2
comparing their energy use with similar residences to
report to the state on the energy savings resulting from
such programs.
Assembly Amendments recast the Senate version language
keeping the intent of the bill the same.
ANALYSIS : Under existing law, the Public Utilities
Commission (PUC) has regulatory authority over public
utilities, including electrical corporations and gas
corporations, as defined. The existing Public Utilities
Act requires the PUC to review and adopt a procurement plan
for each electrical corporation. The Act requires the PUC,
in consultation with the State Energy Resources
Conservation and Development Commission (CEC), to identify
all potentially achievable cost-effective electricity
efficiency savings and to establish efficiency targets for
an electrical corporation to achieve pursuant to its
procurement plan. The Act requires that an electrical
corporation's procurement plan include a showing that the
electrical corporation will first meet its unmet resource
needs through all available energy efficiency and demand
reduction resources that are cost effective, reliable, and
feasible. The Act requires the PUC, in consultation with
the CEC, to identify all potentially achievable
cost-effective natural gas efficiency savings and to
establish efficiency targets for the gas corporation to
achieve these targets and to require that a gas corporation
first meet its unmet gas resource needs through all
available natural gas efficiency and demand reduction
resources that are cost effective, reliable, and feasible.
The Act requires each electrical corporation and each gas
corporation to disclose on the residential customer's
billing statement specified information on usage and cost,
and contact information for the PUC's Consumer Affairs
Branch, and to make available online to residential
customers specified information on usage and energy
conservation measures. The Act authorizes the PUC to
modify, adjust, or add to these requirements as the
individual circumstances of each electrical corporation or
gas corporation merit, or for master-meter customers, as
individual circumstances merit. The Act requires the PUC,
as part of the general rate case of an electrical
corporation or gas corporation, to assess opportunities to
SB 488
Page
3
improve the quality of information contained in the
utility's periodic billings.
The Warren-Alquist State Energy Resources Conservation and
Development Act establishes the CEC and requires it to
prepare an integrated energy policy report on or before
November 1, 2003, and every two years thereafter. Existing
law requires the CEC, on or before November 1, 2007, and
every three years thereafter, in consultation with the PUC
and local publicly-owned electric utilities, in a public
process that allows input from other stakeholders, to
develop a statewide estimate of all potentially achievable
cost-effective electricity and natural gas efficiency
savings and establish statewide annual targets for energy
efficiency savings and demand reduction over 10 years.
Existing law requires the CEC to include in the integrated
energy policy report, for each electrical corporation and
each gas corporation, a comparison of the public utility's
annual energy efficiency targets, and the public utility's
actual energy efficiency savings and demand reductions.
Existing law requires each local publicly-owned electric
utility, as defined, in procuring energy, to first acquire
all available energy efficiency and demand reduction
resources that are cost effective, reliable, and feasible.
Existing law requires each local publicly-owned electric
utility to report annually to its customers and to the CEC
its investment in energy efficiency and demand reduction
programs, as specified. Existing law requires a local
publicly-owned electric utility, on or before June 1, 2007,
and every three years thereafter, to identify all
potentially achievable cost-effective electricity
efficiency savings and to establish annual targets for
energy efficiency savings and demand reduction over 10
years. Existing law requires a local publicly-owned
electric utility to report those targets to the CEC within
60 days of the date of adoption.
This bill:
1. Requires investor-owned utilities (IOUs) with
comparative energy usage disclosure programs to report
to the PUC by March 15, 2010, or within 90 days of
having collected one year's worth of data, and annually
SB 488
Page
4
thereafter until March 15, 2014, on the nature of the
program and the program's energy savings.
2. Requires the PUC to evaluate the information provided
per #1 above, to determine the net energy savings being
generated by such programs, and report its findings to
the CEC and the Legislature.
3. Requires the publicly-owned utilities with ongoing usage
disclosure programs to provide the same information
required of the IOUs to the CEC.
4. Requires the CEC to incorporate the information obtained
per #2 and #3 above into its estimate of potentially
achievable cost-effective energy savings, as included in
the CEC's Integrated Energy Policy Report.
5. Makes all of the above inoperative on July 1, 2015.
Comments
According to the Assembly Appropriations Committee
analysis, numerous studies have shown that a significant
amount of residential energy efficiency savings can result
from behavioral changes as opposed to new technologies.
Research indicates that the desire to keep up with one's
peers can be highly effective in causing consumers to lower
their energy consumption. A 2004 study conducted in San
Diego, which measured consumers' responsiveness to various
reasons to implement energy efficiency measures, found that
peer pressure was more effective in changing consumer
behavior than the desire to mitigate negative environmental
impacts or even the desire to obtain financial savings.
Some utilities have experience with comparative energy use
programs. San Diego Gas and Electric and Southern
California Edison are in the early stages of implementing
pilot programs. In March 2008, Sacramento Municipal
Utility District (SMUD) began a pilot program with 35,000
residents. These customers receive notices relating how
their energy usage compares to that of customers with
similarly-sized homes. When compared to 50,000 homes that
did not receive the notices, SMUD found that those who
received the notices reduced their energy use by 2.4
SB 488
Page
5
percent in the month after the program started.
(Households with higher-than-average energy use receive
specific tips for reducing energy use, and information
about available programs to assist in this regard.)
This bill provides for compilation by the state of the
results of existing comparative energy usage programs,
presumably to determine the potential impact and efficacy
of expanding such programs statewide.
FISCAL EFFECT : Appropriation: No Fiscal Com.: Yes
Local: Yes
SUPPORT : (Verified 9/3/09)
California Association of Realtors
Dr. Robert B. Cialdini, Arizona State University
Planning and Conservation League
Positive Energy, Inc.
San Mateo County Board of Supervisors
W.P. Carey, Distinguished Professor, Arizona State
University
Wesley Schultz, Ph.D., Professor of Psychology, California
State University, San Marcos
ASSEMBLY FLOOR :
AYES: Adams, Ammiano, Arambula, Beall, Bill Berryhill, Tom
Berryhill, Blakeslee, Block, Blumenfield, Brownley,
Caballero, Charles Calderon, Carter, Chesbro, Conway,
Cook, Coto, Davis, De La Torre, De Leon, DeVore, Duvall,
Emmerson, Eng, Evans, Feuer, Fletcher, Fong, Fuentes,
Fuller, Furutani, Galgiani, Hagman, Harkey, Hayashi,
Hernandez, Hill, Huber, Huffman, Jeffries, Jones,
Krekorian, Lieu, Bonnie Lowenthal, Ma, Mendoza, Miller,
Monning, Nava, Niello, John A. Perez, V. Manuel Perez,
Portantino, Ruskin, Salas, Saldana, Silva, Skinner,
Smyth, Solorio, Audra Strickland, Swanson, Torlakson,
Torres, Torrico, Tran, Yamada, Bass
NOES: Anderson, Gaines, Garrick, Gilmore, Knight, Nielsen
NO VOTE RECORDED: Buchanan, Hall, Logue, Nestande,
Villines, Vacancy
SB 488
Page
6
DLW:mw 9/3/09 Senate Floor Analyses
SUPPORT/OPPOSITION: SEE ABOVE
**** END ****