BILL NUMBER: SB 62 INTRODUCED
BILL TEXT
INTRODUCED BY Senator Morrow
JANUARY 4, 2001
An act to amend Section 739.5 of the Public Utilities Code,
relating to utilities, and declaring the urgency thereof, to take
effect immediately.
LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST
SB 62, as introduced, Morrow. Electric bill: master-meter
customers: rate ceiling.
(1) The Public Utilities Act requires every master-meter customer
to provide an itemized billing of charges for electricity or gas, or
both, to each individual user generally in accordance with the form
and content of bills of the corporation to its residential customers.
The act requires the Public Utilities Commission to establish a
ceiling of 6.5
per kilowatt hour on the energy component of electric bills for
residential, small commercial, and lighting customers of the San
Diego Gas and Electric Company, through December 31, 2002,
retroactive to June 1, 2000, as prescribed. b This bill would
require the billing to show any undercollection in the current
billing cycle due to the ceiling, the total accumulated
undercollection to that date, and accumulated interest on the
accumulated undercollection, as prescribed, and to be consistent with
specified accounting procedures. The bill would require a specified
notice. Because a violation of the act is a crime, this bill would
impose a state-mandated local program by creating a new crime.
The bill would allow submeter customers to elect to make
inapplicable that electricity rate ceiling and to pay the full cost
of electricity used plus an amount that equals the simple interest on
any unpaid amounts, as specified, if the related master-meter
customer and all other submeter customers elect to make inapplicable
that electricity rate ceiling.
(2) The California Constitution requires the state to reimburse
local agencies and school districts for certain costs mandated by the
state. Statutory provisions establish procedures for making that
reimbursement.
This bill would provide that no reimbursement is required by this
act for a specified reason.
(3) This bill would declare that it is to take effect immediately
as an urgency statute.
Vote: 2/3. Appropriation: no. Fiscal committee: yes.
State-mandated local program: yes.
THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA DO ENACT AS FOLLOWS:
SECTION 1. Section 739.5 of the Public Utilities Code is amended
to read:
739.5. (a) The commission shall require that, whenever gas or
electric service, or both, is provided by a master-meter customer to
users who are tenants of a mobilehome park, apartment building, or
similar residential complex, the master-meter customer shall charge
each user of the service at the same rate which would be applicable
if the user were receiving gas or electricity, or both, directly from
the gas or electrical corporation. The commission shall require the
corporation furnishing service to the master-meter customer to
establish uniform rates for master-meter service at a level which
will provide a sufficient differential to cover the reasonable
average costs to master-meter customers of providing submeter
service, except that these costs shall not exceed the average cost
that the corporation would have incurred in providing comparable
services directly to the users of the service.
(b) Every master-meter customer of a gas or electrical corporation
subject to subdivision (a) who, on or after January 1, 1978,
receives any rebate from the corporation shall distribute to, or
credit to the account of, each current user served by the
master-meter customer that portion of the rebate which the amount of
gas or electricity, or both, consumed by the user during the last
billing period bears to the total amount furnished by the corporation
to the master-meter customer during that period.
(c) An electrical or gas corporation furnishing service to a
master-meter customer shall furnish to each user of the service
within a submetered system every public safety customer service which
it provides beyond the meter to its other residential customers.
The corporation shall furnish a list of those services to the
master-meter customer who shall post the list in a conspicuous place
accessible to all users. Every corporation shall provide these
public safety customer services to each user of electrical or gas
service under a submetered system without additional charge unless
the corporation has included the average cost of these services in
the rate differential provided to the master-meter customer on
January 1, 1984, in which case the commission shall deduct the
average cost of providing these public safety customer services when
approving rate differentials for master-meter customers.
(d) Every master-meter customer is responsible for maintenance and
repair of its submeter facilities beyond the master meter, and
nothing in this section requires an electrical or gas corporation to
make repairs to or perform maintenance on the submeter system.
(e) (1) Every master-meter customer shall provide an
itemized billing of charges for electricity or gas, or both, to each
individual user generally in accordance with the form and content of
bills of the corporation to its residential customers, including, but
not limited to, the opening and closing readings for the meter, and
the identification of all rates and quantities attributable to each
block in the applicable rate structure. The master-meter customer
shall also post, in a conspicuous place, the applicable prevailing
residential gas or electrical rate schedule, as published by the
corporation.
(2) Each bill shall separately show any undercollection of
reasonable and prudent costs of providing electric energy to the
customer unrecovered in the current billing cycle due to the
application of the ceiling provided for in subdivision (b) of Section
332.1, the total accumulated undercollection for the period from the
date of the imposition of the ceiling to the date of the bill, and
accumulated interest on the accumulated undercollection, which shall
accrue as simple, fixed interest at a rate not to exceed the average
interest rate paid by the San Diego Gas and Electric Company for
loans to finance its purchase of wholesale electricity in the
previous billing cycle. The billing shall be consistent with
subdivision (c) of Section 332.1.
(3) Each bill showing any undercollection pursuant to paragraph
(2) shall contain a notice as follows:
"NOTICE: Payment of this bill, in part or in full, does not
affect the legal standing of the ratepayer with regard to any future
refund, credit, or other adjustment ordered by a local, state, or
federal agency, including, but not limited to, any court order issued
pursuant to litigation."
(f) The commission shall require that every electrical and gas
corporation shall notify each master-meter customer of its
responsibilities to its users under this section.
(g) Notwithstanding subdivision (b) of Section 332.1, submeter
customers subject to that subdivision may elect, in writing, at least
30 days in advance of the affected billing period, to make
inapplicable the electricity rate ceiling established pursuant to
that section and to pay the full cost of electricity used plus an
amount that equals the simple interest on any unpaid amounts at the
rate described in subdivision (e), if the related master-meter
customer and all other submeter customers elect to make inapplicable
that electricity rate ceiling.
SEC. 2. No reimbursement is required by this act pursuant to
Section 6 of Article XIIIB of the California Constitution because the
only costs that may be incurred by a local agency or school district
will be incurred because this act creates a new crime or infraction,
eliminates a crime or infraction, or changes the penalty for a crime
or infraction, within the meaning of Section 17556 of the Government
Code, or changes the definition of a crime within the meaning of
Section 6 of Article XIIIB of the California Constitution.
SEC. 3. This act is an urgency statute necessary for the immediate
preservation of the public peace, health, or safety within the
meaning of Article IV of the Constitution and shall go into immediate
effect. The facts constituting the necessity are:
In order to modify utility billing practices to provide adequate
disclosure to ratepayers of the San Diego Gas and Electric Company of
undercollections by that company due to the rate ceiling imposed by
Chapter 328 of the Statutes of 2000, and to allow certain ratepayers
to elect to make the ceiling inapplicable. as soon as possible, it is
necessary that this act take effect immediately.