Amended in Assembly May 6, 2014

Amended in Assembly March 28, 2014

California Legislature—2013–14 Regular Session

Assembly Bill No. 2584

Introduced by Assembly Member Nestande

February 21, 2014

An act to amend Section 2827.8 of the Public Utilities Code, relating to electricity.

LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL’S DIGEST

AB 2584, as amended, Nestande. Energy: California Renewables Portfolio Standard Program.

Under existing law, the Public Utilities Commission has regulatory authority over public utilities, including electrical corporations, as defined, while local publicly owned electric utilities, as defined, are under the direction of their governing board. Existing law relative to private energy producers requires every electric utility, as defined, to develop a standard contract or tariff providing for net energy metering, as defined, and to make this contract or tariff available to eligible customer generators, as defined, upon request for generation by a renewable electrical generation facility, as defined. Existing law authorizes a local publicly owned electric utility to elect to instead offer co-energy metering, which uses a generation-to-generation energy and time-of-use credit formula, as specified.

Existing law establishes separate requirements for wind energy co-metering that provides a credit against the generation component of an electricity bill of an electric utility for those eligible customer-generators utilizing a wind energy project with a generating capacity greater than 50 kilowatts, but not exceeding one megawatt, unless approved by the electric utility.

This bill would provide that, for a United States Department of Defense begin delete installation, end delete begin insert installation that operates a wind turbine and is served by Southern California Edison, end insert wind energy co-metering is available if the generating capacity does not exceed 1.5 megawatts.

Vote: majority. Appropriation: no. Fiscal committee: yes. State-mandated local program: no.

The people of the State of California do enact as follows:

SECTION 1.  

Section 2827.8 of the Public Utilities Code is
amended to read:

2827.8.  

Notwithstanding any other provisions of this article,
the following provisions apply to an eligible customer-generator
utilizing wind energy co-metering with a capacity of more than
50 kilowatts, but not exceeding one megawatt, or for a United
States Department of Defense begin delete installation, end delete begin insert installation that operates
a wind turbine and is served by Southern California Edison, end insert not
exceeding 1.5 megawatts, unless approved by the electric utility.

(a) The eligible customer-generator shall be required to utilize
a meter, or multiple meters, capable of separately measuring
electricity flow in both directions. Nothing in this section precludes
the use of advanced metering infrastructure devices. All meters
shall provide “time-of-use” measurements of electricity flow, and
the customer shall take service on a time-of-use rate schedule. If
the existing meter of the eligible customer-generator is not a
time-of-use meter or is not capable of measuring total flow of
energy in both directions, the eligible customer-generator is
responsible for all expenses involved in purchasing and installing
a meter that is both time-of-use and able to measure total electricity
flow in both directions. This subdivision shall not restrict the ability
of an eligible customer-generator to utilize any economic incentives
provided by a government agency or the electric utility to reduce
its costs for purchasing and installing a time-of-use meter.

(b) The consumption of electricity from the electric utility for
wind energy co-metering by an eligible customer-generator shall
be priced in accordance with the standard rate charged to the
eligible customer-generator in accordance with the rate structure
to which the customer would be assigned if the customer did not
use an eligible wind electrical generating facility. The generation
of electricity provided to the electric utility shall result in a credit
to the eligible customer-generator and shall be priced in accordance
with the generation component, excluding surcharges to cover the
purchase of power by the Department of Water Resources,
established under the applicable structure to which the customer
would be assigned if the customer did not use an eligible wind
electrical generating facility.