BILL ANALYSIS �
AB 2584
Page 1
Date of Hearing: April 16, 2012
ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON UTILITIES AND COMMERCE
Steven Bradford, Chair
AB 2584 (Bradford) - As Amended: February 24, 2012
SUBJECT : Unplanned Service Outages: Retention of Evidence
SUMMARY : AB 2584 requires electrical and gas corporations to
retain all unaltered evidence pertaining to an unscheduled
service outage for 5 days if such retention does not impair
public safety or the return of service. Specifically, this
bill :
1) Requires every electrical corporation and gas corporation
that has an unplanned service outage resulting from an accident,
natural event, or caused by the unplanned act of a utility
employee, to preserve and not dispose of any materials that
evidence the cause of the unplanned outage for 5 business days
following the unplanned outage.
2) Provides that if the evidence of the cause of an unplanned
outage must be altered to restore utility service or to protect
public safety, the electrical corporation or gas corporation is
required to identify those utility facilities that have been
altered and preserve those materials that were unnecessary for
the restoration of service or protection of the public safety.
3) States that the duty to preserve evidence of unplanned
outages is inapplicable if during the five-day holding period,
the California Public Utilities Commission (PUC) notifies the
utility that it has concluded any investigation it intends to
conduct as to the reasons for the outage.
EXISTING LAW
1)States the PUC has regulatory authority over public utilities,
including electrical and gas corporations.
2)Requires the PUC to adopt inspection, maintenance, repair, and
replacement standards for the distribution systems of
electrical corporations in order to provide high quality,
safe, and reliable service.
3)Requires the PUC to conduct a review to determine whether the
AB 2584
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standards have been met and to perform the review after every
major outage.
4)Provides that any violation of the Public Utilities Act or any
PUC order, decision, rule, direction, demand, or requirement
is a crime.
FISCAL EFFECT : Unknown
COMMENTS :
1)Author's Statement : At a Joint Hearing of the Assembly
Utilities & Commerce Committee and the Joint Legislative
Committee on Emergency Management, the PUC reported that
materials and equipment that would have been useful for
determining the cause of a widespread and lengthy power outage
may have been destroyed. This bill will make it clear that
evidence related to an outage shall be preserved until the PUC
has determined that it can be released.
2)Background : On April 22, 1911, the Legislature passed an act
(Chapter 499, Statutes of 1911) which regulated the erection
and maintenance of poles, wires, etc. employed in overhead
electric line construction. In 1915 the Legislature issued
Chapter 600, which amended Chapter 499 and required the
Railroad Commission (the PUC's predecessor) to inspect all
such work.
On May 1, 1922, the Railroad Commission issued its General
Order No. 64 covering rules and regulations for overhead
electric line construction. On December 17, 1928, General
Order 64-A was issued applicable to lines constructed or
reconstructed on and after that date.
Since that time, the PUC has issued its General Order No. 95
that pertains to the Rules for Overhead Electric Line
Construction. Contained in General Order 95 is CPUC Rule 19
which orders each regulated utility with electric lines on its
duties for preserving evidence related to accidents.
3) Service Outages: While Californians like to believe that
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"blackouts" ceased with the closure of the California Energy
Crisis in 2001-2, outages for various reasons continue today
and remain a significant safety risk. On September 8, 2011,
more than 4 million people lost power after the North
Gila-Hassayampa 500 kV transmission line was tripped offline,
triggering a massive blackout in Mexico, Southern California
and Arizona. Usually this type of outage would have been
isolated to the Yuma area. Questions have arisen as to why
this wasn't the case. San Diego Gas & Electric (SDG&E) said
that 1.4 million customers were affected. Two million more
people were reported to be without power in Mexico. A
multi-stage restoration plan was needed to restore all power.
Then on November 30, 2012 and December 1, 2012, a windstorm
with gusts of 60-80 mph hit the Los Angeles area knocking out
power to more than 250,000 residents. A number of residents
were without service for 7 days.
4)The author may wish to consider codifying Rule 19 from General
Order 95:
SUGGESTED AMENDMENT : Strike all language in AB 2584 and
insert the following language:
Each utility shall provide full cooperation to the commission
in an investigation into any major accident or any reportable
incident regardless of pending litigation or other
investigations, including those which may be related to a
commission investigation. Once the scene of the incident has
been made safe and service has been restored, each utility
shall provide the commission, upon request, immediate access
to:
a) Any factual or physical evidence under the utility
or utility agent's physical control, custody, or
possession related to the incident;
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b) The name and contact information of any known
percipient witness;
c) Any employee percipient witness under the utility's
control;
d) The name and contact information of any person or
entity that has taken possession of any physical evidence
removed from the site of the incident;
e) Any and all documents under the utility's control
that are related to the incident and are not subject to
the attorney-client privilege or attorney work product
doctrine.
Any and all documents or evidence collected as part of the
utility's own investigation related to the incident shall be
preserved for at least five years.
REGISTERED SUPPORT / OPPOSITION :
Support
California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) (if amended)
Opposition
PacifiCorp
Analysis Prepared by : Susan Kateley / U. & C. / (916)
319-2083