BILL ANALYSIS
AB 8 X1
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Date of Hearing: March 7, 2001
ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON APPROPRIATIONS
Carole Migden, Chairwoman
AB 8 X1 (Migden) - As Amended: March 5, 2001
Policy Committee: E.C.&A.Vote:14-0
Urgency: No State Mandated Local Program:
Yes Reimbursable: Yes
SUMMARY
This bill establishes outage standards and reporting
requirements for electrical generating and transmission
facilities. Specifically, this bill:
1)Requires the Electricity Oversight Board (EOB) to review and
approve a protocol prepared by the Independent System Operator
(ISO) for scheduling transmission and generation equipment
outages related to maintenance and repair.
2)Requires the ISO to prepare a coordinated outage plan at least
annually using the approved protocol and to submit the plan to
the EOB.
3)Requires the EOB to review and approve generation facility
maintenance criteria as proposed by the ISO.
4)Requires the ISO to provide the EOB with daily records of
generating facility outages.
5)Requires owners of generating facilities of 50 megawatts or
greater to provide the ISO and EOB with monthly reports
identifying when and why their facilities were unavailable to
produce electricity at full capacity.
6)Authorizes the ISO and the EOB to conduct audits or to inspect
facilities failing to comply with the standards and procedures
established above.
7)Authorizes the EOB to assess a monetary penalty against an
owner who fails to comply with the standards and procedures
established above.
AB 8 X1
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FISCAL EFFECT
General Fund appropriation of $575,000, which represents ongoing
annual costs to the EOB.
COMMENTS
1)Purpose . The current electricity supply situation suggests a
need to maintain records of outages, scheduled maintenance,
and load reduction, of generation facilities to assess supply
capacity and to address supply proactively. This bill
accomplishes this by vesting more oversight power with the EOB
and the ISO than currently provided in statute. The bill
provides the EOB full knowledge of operational conditions
throughout the state, and to approve protocols for scheduling
generation facility maintenance.
The bill largely codifies the Governor's Executive Order #23 of
February 8, 2001.
2)Opposition . The California Municipal Utilities Association,
stating that their facilities are operated for the benefit of
their customer-owners, are opposed to having their maintenance
schedules subject to state coordination with other generating
facilities. The author is working with the association to
address their concerns.
The Independent Energy Producers Association concurs that the
ISO should be the primary entity to coordinate maintenance
outages and inspections, but is concerned with the additional
regulatory authority provided the EOB.
3)Related Legislation . SB 39X (Speier) in part authorizes the
Public Utilities Commission to prescribe inspection,
maintenance, and operating practices and procedures for any
generating facility as necessary to ensure public health and
safety and electric service reliability and adequacy.
Analysis Prepared by : Chuck Nicol / APPR. / (916)319-2081