BILL NUMBER: AB 816 AMENDED
BILL TEXT
AMENDED IN SENATE JUNE 16, 2003
AMENDED IN ASSEMBLY JUNE 2, 2003
AMENDED IN ASSEMBLY MAY 6, 2003
AMENDED IN ASSEMBLY APRIL 8, 2003
AMENDED IN ASSEMBLY MARCH 25, 2003
INTRODUCED BY Assembly Member Reyes
(Principal coauthors: Assembly Members Canciamilla and Richman)
FEBRUARY 20, 2003
An act to amend Section 80110 of the Water Code, relating to
electric power.
LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST
AB 816, as amended, Reyes. Local publicly owned electric
utilities: Public Utilities Commission: direct transactions.
(1) Existing law authorizes the Department of Water Resources to
administer existing contracts for the purchase of electric power, and
to sell power to retail end use customers and, with specified
exceptions, local publicly owned electric utilities, at not more than
the department's acquisition costs. Existing law imposes on retail
end use customers of electrical corporations and community choice
aggregators nonbypassable charges to repay certain costs of the
department and electrical corporations.
Under existing law, the Public Utilities Commission has regulatory
authority over public utilities, including electrical corporations,
and authorizes the commission to fix just and reasonable rates and
charges. Existing law requires the commission to authorize direct
transactions between electricity suppliers and end use customers,
also known as direct access. Existing law suspends, after a period of
time to be determined by the commission, the right of a retail end
use customer to acquire electricity from other electric service
providers pursuant to direct transactions, until the department no
longer supplies electricity under those provisions. Pursuant to
these provisions, the commission has instituted a rulemaking
proceeding to implement the suspension of direct access to result in
a decision and order adopting cost responsibility surcharge
mechanisms for municipal departing load.
This bill would require the commission to reinstate the right of
retail end use customers with a load requirement of 500 kilowatts or
more to acquire electricity from other electric service providers
subject to specified conditions. The bill would require the
commission, in considering the procurement plan of an electrical
corporation, to set the amount of direct access permitted to minimize
the potential that the electrical corporation will enter into
commitments that the subsequent exercise of direct access will render
unnecessary or excessive. The bill would require the commission to
adopt rules it determines to be necessary to implement the
reinstatement of direct access, including any notice requirements
imposed as a condition of direct access, and provisions to ensure the
prompt recovery by an electrical corporation of costs it incurs to
reinstate and administer direct access. Because a violation of a rule
or order of the commission is a crime under existing law, the bill
would impose a state-mandated local program by creating a new crime.
This bill would declare the intent of the Legislature to enact
legislation that will conform to the decision and order of the
commission adopting cost responsibility surcharge mechanisms for
municipal departing load, provided that the decision and order will
not result in cost shifting to bundled service customers of
electrical corporations for recoverable costs reasonably
incurred on behalf of departing municipal load .
(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.
Vote: majority. Appropriation: no. Fiscal committee: yes.
State-mandated local program: yes.
THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA DO ENACT AS FOLLOWS:
SECTION 1. It is the intent of the Legislature to enact subsequent
legislation that will conform to the decision and order of the
Public Utilities Commission adopting cost responsibility surcharge
mechanisms for municipal departing load, provided that the decision
and order will not result in cost shifting to bundled service
customers of investor-owned electrical corporation
utilities. of an electrical corporation for recoverable
costs reasonably incurred on behalf of departing municipal load.
SEC. 2. Section 80110 of the Water Code is amended to read:
80110. (a) The department shall retain title to all power sold by
it to the retail end use customers. The department shall be
entitled to recover, as a revenue requirement, amounts and at the
times necessary to enable it to comply with Section 80134, and shall
advise the commission as the department determines to be appropriate.
Those revenue requirements may also include any advances made to
the department hereunder or hereafter for purposes of this division,
or from the Department of Water Resources Electric Power Fund, and
General Fund moneys expended by the department pursuant to the
Governor's State of Emergency Proclamation, dated January 17, 2001.
For purposes of this division and except as otherwise provided in
this section, the commission's authority as set forth in Section 451
of the Public Utilities Code shall apply, except any just and
reasonable review under Section 451 shall be conducted and determined
by the department. The commission may enter into an agreement with
the department with respect to charges under Section 451 for purposes
of this division, and that agreement shall have the force and effect
of a financing order adopted in accordance with Article 5.5
(commencing with Section 840) of Chapter 4 of Part 1 of Division 1 of
the Public Utilities Code, as determined by the commission. In no
case shall the commission increase the electricity charges in effect
on February 1, 2001, for residential customers for existing baseline
quantities or usage by those customers of up to 130 percent of
existing baseline quantities, until the department has recovered the
costs of power it has procured for the electrical corporation's
retail end use customers as provided in this division.
(b) The commission shall reinstate the right of retail end
customers with a load requirement of 500 kilowatts or more to acquire
service from other electric service providers pursuant to Article 6
(commencing with Section 360) of Chapter 2.3 of Part 1 of Division 1
of the Public Utilities Code, once each of the following conditions
are met:
(1) The commission has established a cost responsibility surcharge
for customers that opt for direct transactions. Each retail end use
customer that has purchased power from an electrical corporation on
or after February 1, 2001, shall bear a fair share of the department'
s electricity purchase costs that are recoverable from electrical
corporation customers in commission-approved rates including costs
described in subdivisions (d), (e), (f), and (g) of Section 366.2.
(2) The State of California has issued revenue bonds pursuant to
Chapter 2.5 (commencing with Section 80130).
(3) The electrical corporations are procuring electricity under
procurement plans pursuant to Section 454.5 of the Public Utilities
Code.
(4) The commission has resolved all outstanding issues in the
direct access phase of commission Rulemaking 02-01-011.
(5) The commission has adopted rules for the treatment of direct
access customers who voluntarily or involuntarily return to
electrical corporation bundled service. The rules adopted by the
commission shall ensure that electric corporation customers receiving
bundled service are indifferent to cost shifting caused by direct
access customers returning to bundled service.
(c) The department shall have the same rights with respect to the
payment by retail end use customers for power sold by the department
as do providers of power to those customers.
(d) The commission, in considering the procurement plan of an
electrical corporation, shall set the amount of direct access
permitted to minimize the potential that the electrical corporation
will enter into commitments that the subsequent exercise of direct
access will render unnecessary or excessive.
(e) The commission shall adopt rules it determines to be necessary
to implement the reinstatement of direct access pursuant to this
section, including any notice requirements imposed as a condition of
direct access, and provisions to ensure the prompt recovery by an
electrical corporation of costs it incurs to reinstate and administer
direct access.
SEC. 3. No reimbursement is required by this act pursuant to
Section 6 of Article XIII B of the California Constitution because
the only costs that may be incurred by a local agency or school
district because in that regard 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 XIII B of the California
Constitution.