BILL ANALYSIS �
AB 2590
Page 1
Date of Hearing: May 7, 2012
ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON UTILITIES AND COMMERCE
Steven Bradford, Chair
AB 2590 (Blumenfield) - As Amended: May 1, 2012
SUBJECT : Distributed generation: interconnection.
SUMMARY : Mandates investor owned electric utilities (IOUs) to
post any reports required by a revision to the California Public
Utilities Commission's Electric Rule 21 on its Internet Website
if that revision is adopted after January 1, 2012.
EXISTING LAW :
1)Prescribe both federal and state procedures and fees required
to connect a generation facility to the grid. The Federal
requirements are regulated by the Federal Energy Regulatory
Commission (FERC). The State requirements are regulated by the
California Public Utilities Commission (PUC).
2)Federal requirements apply to projects that interconnect to
the points in the grid that are owned and operated by
utilities or those points that are managed by the California
Independent System Operator (CAISO). CAISO manages the
transmission system. Those points that are controlled by the
utilities include anything not under CAISO control up to the
utility customer's electrical meter. These interconnection
procedures are known at the Generator Interconnection Process
(GIP) at CAISO and the Wholesale Distribution Access Tariff
(WDAT) at the utilities. These procedures are submitted to and
approved by FERC.
3)State requirements apply to projects that interconnect on the
side of the electrical meter that is controlled by a customer
of a utility and designed to provide electricity that is
generally consumed on site by the customer (known as PUC Rule
21). The PUC has oversight of Rule 21.
FISCAL EFFECT : Unknown
COMMENTS : According to the author, "alternative energy is the
path to meet California's future energy needs. We must do all
that we can to reduce barriers to producing clean, affordable
power close to where people live. Distributive energy producers
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need easy access to the information currently available in order
to make smart choices about their energy projects.
One way to assist energy producers in designing good projects is
to provide easy access to this data by making sure that all
public reports required by Electric Rule 21 are posted online.
AB 2590 ensures that future reports relating to interconnection
are electronically available so that the public, distributive
energy producers and regulators can easily access this critical
information."
1)Background : Interconnection rules and processes are designed
to ensure that generation facilities connect to the
electricity grid in a manner that does create safety or
reliability problems for customers who rely on the electricity
from the grid.
In light of successful deployment of customer-side renewable
energy projects, and lower costs of renewable technologies,
there is more opportunity to develop local generation that can
serve more than one customer at a time. This type of project
is commonly known as 'distributed generation.' The PUC has
implemented or is in the process of implementing programs to
encourage greater deployment of distributed generation (DG),
including the Reverse Auction Mechanism (RAM) and Feed in
Tariffs (FIT). The PUC has also approved photovoltaic DG
programs at both PG&E and SCE. These projects range in size
from 1 Megawatt (MW) to 20 MW. For the most part, they are
designed to interconnect through the WDAT procedure.
2)The Rule 21 Settlement: The PUC established a working group to
discuss reforming the interconnection process known as Rule
21. A settlement motion was filed on March 21 and is pending
before the PUC. The settling parties include the investor
owned utilities and Aloha Systems Incorporated; California
Farm Bureau Federation; Center For Energy Efficiency And
Renewable Technologies; the Clean Coalition; Interstate
Renewable Energy Council Inc.; Sierra Club, Solar Energy
Industries Association; SunEdison; Sunlight Partners;
Sustainable Conservation; and The Vote Solar Initiative.
According to the settling parties, the settlement provides
significant revision of Rule 21 in a manner that maintains
distribution and transmission grid safety, reliability and
power quality while balancing the need for a more timely,
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efficient and transparent interconnection process without
delay.
The Rule 21 Settlement specifies that there will be a publicly
available queue of projects and what information can be held
confidential and what cannot.
Perhaps most important, the reforms were done with an eye
toward making conforming reforms to the WDAT process, which
will require the investor owned utilities to file a petition
before FERC to request approval for those changes.
3)Transparency and open information: The intent of AB 2590 is to
require the IOUs to post on their websites any reporting
requirements pursuant to changes in PUC Rule 21. This would
ensure the reports are easily accessible to the public,
distribution power generators and regulators. The bill also
defers to PUC authority relative to confidentiality rules
under Public Utilities Code Section 583.
4)Is this bill premature : This bill may not be needed as some
of the utilities are already posting Rule 21 updates on their
website. In particular, Southern California Edison is working
on an internet web-based conference with the PUC and
Governor's office on the Rule 21 Phase 1 settlement changes.
According to the PUC, there are three types of reports
currently required under the revised Electric Rule 21, all of
which will contain proprietary to a developer applying for
interconnection. The three reports are (1) a pre-application
report (a quick first look at a point of interconnection), a
system impact study report (stating the impacts of the
developer's proposed generating facility), and a facilities
study report (stating the interconnection facilities that will
have to be built to accommodate the generating facility).
These all contain information that a developer will consider
confidential and will likely not want posted to the IOU's
website.
Moreover, the PUC notes that a staff proposal is currently
planned for the PUC's open interconnection rulemaking
(R.11-09-011) on broader reporting by the electric utilities
to identify overall compliance with the revised Rule 21 once
it has been formally adopted. The proposed compliance reports
will draw only on non-confidential and that data will be
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required to be filed in the proceeding and posted publicly.
REGISTERED SUPPORT / OPPOSITION :
Support
Opposition
Analysis Prepared by : DaVina Flemings / U. & C. / (916)
319-2083