BILL ANALYSIS
Appropriations Committee Fiscal Summary
------------------------------------------------------------
| |18(Goldberg) |
|-------------------------------+----------------------------|
| | |
|-------------------------------+----------------------------|
|Hearing Date: 9/10/01 |Amended: 9/5/01 |
|-------------------------------+----------------------------|
|Consultant: Lisa Matocq |Policy Vote: E, U & C |
| |6-1 |
| | |
------------------------------------------------------------
____________________________________________________________
___
BILL SUMMARY: AB 18xx, an urgency bill, appropriates $20
million from the General Fund to the California Energy
Commission (CEC) for a grant program to provide funding to
public and private hospitals to install energy technologies
such as thermal energy storage (TES) in order to reduce
peak load demand.
Fiscal Impact (in thousands)
Major Provisions 2001-02 2002-03
2003-04 Fund
TES grant program $ 20,000* --
-- General
*Appropriated in the bill.
STAFF COMMENTS: This bill meets the criteria for referral
to the Suspense File. TES is a process by which energy is
used at night (off-peak) periods to produce and store cold
energy in the form of ice or chilled water which is then
used during the day (peak) for air conditioning or other
cooling processes.
Implementation of this bill is contingent upon there being
sufficient unencumbered funds from SB 5x (Sher, Ch. 7, St.
of 2001) on March 1, 2002. These funds would otherwise
revert to the General Fund. SB 5x appropriated
$675 million for various energy efficiency and conservation
measures.
Under current law, the CEC administers, until January 1,
2011, a revolving fund for the Energy Conservation
Assistance Program which provides low-cost loans (and to a
lesser extent grants) to hospitals, schools, and other
entities for energy efficiency and conservation projects.
The program was initially funded with a $10 million
appropriation. AB 29x (Kehoe, Ch. 8, St. of 2001) provided
an additional $50 million. This bill:
requires CEC to award grants to nonprofit hospitals
before awarding any to for-profit hospitals,
requires grants to be awarded on a competitive basis,
specifies that the amount of the grant shall be based on
the average number of kilowatts reduced during peak
demand periods,
requires CEC to develop regulations to implement the
grant program.
STAFF NOTES that there is no provision for CEC's
administrative costs, and no match or reporting
requirement. The bill does not specify minimum or maximum
grant amounts. SB 52xx (Chesbro), on this committee's
Suspense File, requires CEC to study TES technologies for
cost-effectiveness. AB 29x (Kehoe, Ch. 8, St. of 2001)
requires the Department of General Services to inventory
state buildings to identify ways to reduce peak energy
demand, and produce onsite generation where feasible by
using thermal storage and other technologies.