BILL ANALYSIS �
AB 512
Page 1
CONCURRENCE IN SENATE AMENDMENTS
AB 512 (Gordon)
As Amended August 25, 2011
Majority vote
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|ASSEMBLY: |70-0 |(May 12, 2011) |SENATE: |37-0 |(August 30, |
| | | | | |2011) |
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Original Committee Reference: U. & C.
SUMMARY : Increases the capacity of a powerplant from 1 megawatt
(MW) to 5 MW that would be eligible for a local government
program that allows a municipality to generate electricity at
one location to offset electricity usage at another municipal
location.
The Senate amendments
1)Prohibit an electrical corporation from being required to
compensate a local government for electricity generated from a
facility in excess of the bill credits applied to the
designated benefitting account.
2)Prohibit a local government from being eligible for any other
tariff program that requires an electrical corporation to
purchase generation from an eligible renewable generating
facility participating in the program.
3)Exempt an electrical corporation with 60,000 or fewer customer
accounts from the program.
AS PASSED BY THE ASSEMBLY , this bill was substantially similar
to the version passed by the Senate.
FISCAL EFFECT : According to the Assembly Appropriations
Committee, negligible fiscal impact to the PUC.
COMMENTS : A 1-MW generation facility can serve about 750
single-family homes. A 5-MW facility can serve almost 4,000
homes.
According to the author, the purpose of this bill is to
implement a recommendation from a November 2010 State Assembly
AB 512
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Select Committee on California's Green Economy report titled,
"How to Grow Jobs and Investment in California's Green Economy."
The report noted that the City of Fresno as well as other local
governments in the state expressed frustration at the
limitations placed on their ability to produce their own
renewable energy. In particular, the report states that the
City of Fresno had considered generating more of their own
energy through renewable projects, but found that they did not
work financially due to the 1 MW limit of the existing local
government net-energy metering program. The report recommended
to increase renewable energy generation by local governmental
entities, and to also increase the capacity of an eligible local
government generation facility from 1 MW to 5 MW. That
suggestion is the basis for this bill. Another suggestion was
to increase the geographic boundary restrictions; however, this
bill does not address the boundaries.
Existing law requires electric corporations to allow local
governments and public college and university campuses to
generate electricity from an eligible renewable facility at one
site and transfer any available excess bill credits (in dollars)
to another account owned by the same local government, college
or university. The program is capped at 250 MW and divided
proportionally between the state's largest investor-owned
utilities (IOUs). The facility size is capped at 1 MW per
account. The program is commonly referred to as the Renewable
Energy Self-Generation Bill Credit Transfer Program (RES-BCT).
The renewable energy does not count toward the State's Renewable
Portfolio Standard (RPS) which requires electric utilities to
obtain 33% of generation from renewable resources by 2020.
There are many existing programs in statute that allow a
municipality or public entity to generate electricity in one
location and receive a bill credit, or a net-metered tariff, for
a meter in another location(s). Each has been added in a
piecemeal fashion. For example, in 2002, SB 1038 (Sher) Chapter
515, Statutes of 2002, allowed the City of Davis to use
electricity generated from Photovoltaics for Utility Systems
Applications (PVUSA) to receive a bill credit at a benefiting
account or accounts designated by the City of Davis. The same
bill allowed California State University (CSU), Fresno to
receive a bill credit for the electricity generated at a biomass
facility owned by CSU Fresno known as the Dinuba Facility. CSU
Fresno net-energy metering allowance sunsetted on January 1,
2008.
AB 512
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In 2008, AB 2466 (Laird), Chapter 540, Statutes of 2008, created
a comprehensive "Local Government Renewable Energy
Self-Generation Program." AB 2466 allowed an eligible facility
to not exceed 1 MW, and it limited the statewide capacity for
the three largest investor-owned utilities (IOUs) to 250 MW.
After IOUs offer service or contracts to its proportionate share
of the 250-MW limitation, it does not need to provide
net-metering allowances to additional local government
generation facilities. PUC concluded its implementation of the
bill in early 2010. To date there are no customers
participating in the program.
Analysis Prepared by : DaVina Flemings / U. & C. / (916)
319-2083
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