BILL ANALYSIS �
AB 1935
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Date of Hearing: May 21, 2014
ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON APPROPRIATIONS
Mike Gatto, Chair
AB 1935 (Campos) - As Amended: May 6, 2013
Policy Committee: Natural
ResourcesVote:9-0
Utilities and Commerce 13-0
Urgency: No State Mandated Local Program:
No Reimbursable:
SUMMARY
This bill revises the scope of an existing Public Utilities
Commission (PUC) biennial report on the electricity grid impacts
of distributed generation (DG) to focus on clean distributed
energy resources. This bill defines "clean distributed energy
resources" as any of the following:
1)A clean energy generating technology that meets all of the
following criteria:
a) Produces electricity, or electricity and useful heat.
b) Has a greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions factor, including,
when applicable, credit for waste heat recovery and savings
on transmission and distribution losses, that is less than
or equal to the emission factor for electricity developed
by the Air Resources Board (ARB) in the AB 32 scoping plan.
c) Has an oxide of nitrogen (NOx) emissions rate,
including, when applicable, credit for waste heat recovery,
that is less than or equal to the NOx emission limit set by
ARB in its DG certification regulation.
d) Has a nameplate rated generation capacity of 20 or less
megawatts (MW).
1)An eligible renewable energy resource, as defined in Section
399.12, that uses organic waste or biogas as its fuel and has
a nameplate generation capacity of 20 or less MW.
2)A demand response that provides reliability benefits, complies
with existing law, and supports the state's renewable energy
goals as specified.
AB 1935
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3)An energy storage technology that stores energy from a clean
energy generating technology or renewable energy resource as
specified.
FISCAL EFFECT
Increased costs to the PUC in the range of $150,000 to expand
the scope of its existing report.
COMMENTS
1)Purpose. According to the author, because there are so many
types of new clean distributed resources being developed and
deployed in California today, it makes sense for the PUC's
report on report to use a technology-neutral, attribute-based
definition to guide the report's findings
2)Background. AB 578 (Blakeslee), Chapter 627, Statutes of
2008, requires the Public Utilities Commission (PUC) to study
and report to the Legislature and Governor on the impacts of
DG on the state's distribution and transmission grid. AB 578
requires the study to evaluate specified issues related to
interconnection and operation of DG.
The PUC has hired consulting firms to prepare two "DG impacts"
reports since AB 578 was enacted. The most recent report,
"Biennial Report on Impacts of Distributed Generation,"
prepared by Black & Veatch, was published by the PUC in May
2013.
Analysis Prepared by : Jennifer Galehouse / APPR. / (916)
319-2081