BILL ANALYSIS �
AB 2529
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Date of Hearing: May 21, 2014
ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON APPROPRIATIONS
Mike Gatto, Chair
AB 2529 (Williams) - As Amended: May 15, 2014
Policy Committee: Utilities and
Commerce Vote: 10-4
Natural Resources 5-3
Urgency: No State Mandated Local Program:
No Reimbursable:
SUMMARY
This bill requires the California Energy Commission (CEC) and
the Public Utilities Commission (PUC) to perform a baseline
study of energy usage by plug-in equipment and develop an
implementation plan to achieve specified reductions by 2030.
Specifically, this bill:
1)By January 1, 2017, requires the CEC and PUC to jointly
perform a study of average annual energy consumption for
plug-in equipment in the residential and commercial sectors
during the year 2014 to establish a baseline.
2)By the year 2030, requires the CEC and PUC to develop a
coordinated implementation plan, in consultation with
stakeholders, to reduce plug-in energy consumption by at least
a 25% aggregate reduction in residential households and 40%
aggregate reduction per square foot of commercial space when
compared to the 2014 baseline.
3)Requires the implementation plan to include biennial
intermediate targets between 2018 and 2030.
FISCAL EFFECT
1)Increased one-time costs of up to $3 million for the CEC to
develop the baseline study. Ongoing unknown annual
administrative costs.
2)Increased one-time costs of up to $5 million for the PUC to
develop the baseline study. Ongoing annual administrative
AB 2529
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cost of approximately $350,000.
COMMENTS
1)Rationale. According to the author, plug-in equipment is
responsible for nearly 60% of residential and 16% of
commercial electricity consumption in California. Across both
sectors, plug-in equipment consumes the equivalent annual
output of 23 500-megawatt power plants. This is projected to
increase to 27 power plants by 2030.
This addresses this large, yet often overlooked, sector of
energy consumption.
2)Background. The CEC has been proposing and adopting appliance
regulations since its inception in 1977. As new product
designs, new information about products, and new information
about energy usage become available, the CEC will periodically
propose new regulations or update existing regulations. The
CEC continuously researches, investigates, assesses, and
identifies appliance and end use products which may ultimately
become the subject of an appliance regulation. The CEC is
preempted from adopting energy efficiency regulations on
products which are already regulated for their energy usage by
the Federal government.
The PUC oversees existing investor-owned utility (IOU)
administered ratepayer-funded energy efficiency rebate and
codes and standards programs.
Analysis Prepared by : Jennifer Galehouse / APPR. / (916)
319-2081