BILL ANALYSIS                                                                                                                                                                                                    �



                                                                  AB 2516
                                                                  Page  1

          Date of Hearing:   April 25, 2012

                        ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON APPROPRIATIONS
                                Felipe Fuentes, Chair

               AB 2516 (Bradford) - As Introduced:  February 24, 2012 

          Policy Committee:                              
          UtilitiesVote:14-0 (Consent)

          Urgency:     No                   State Mandated Local Program: 
          Yes    Reimbursable:              No

           SUMMARY  

          This bill requires the California Independent System Operator 
          (CAISO) to conduct operations in a manner that maximizes 
          electricity reliability at the lowest cost to ratepayers, and to 
          communicate to the maximum possible extent with all of the 
          state's other balancing coordinators.

           FISCAL EFFECT  

          Negligible fiscal impact.

           COMMENTS  

           1)Purpose.  According to the author, following a widespread power 
            outage that occurred in September 2011 in the San Diego 
            region, the Assembly Utilities and Commerce Committee held a 
            hearing to investigate the outage.  Based on testimony, it was 
            not clear that CAISO and other balancing authorities in the 
            region were regularly communicating with each other before the 
            outage.  The intent of this bill is to recognize the need for 
            all entities involved with providing or enabling the safe, 
            reliable supply of electricity to ensure that electricity 
            rates remain affordable to Californians.
           
          2)Background  . CAISO is a nonprofit, public benefit corporation 
            is responsible for matching California's electricity supply 
            with demand and maintaining frequency of 80% of the state's 
            transmission grid. Other balancing authorities operating in 
            California are PacifiCorp, Sacramento Municipal Utility 
            District, Sierra Pacific Power, Turlock Irrigation District, 
            Nevada Energy, Los Angeles Department of Water and Power, 








                                                                  AB 2516
                                                                  Page  2

            Western Area Lower Colorado and Imperial Irrigation District.

           Analysis Prepared by  :    Chuck Nicol / APPR. / (916) 319-2081