BILL NUMBER: AB 816 AMENDED
BILL TEXT
AMENDED IN SENATE JULY 2, 2003
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 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
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
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
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 end-use customers with a
load requirement of 500 kilowatts or more to acquire electricity
from other electric service providers subject to specified
conditions. Retail end-use customers under single ownership
would be authorized to aggregate load served by multiple meters, to
meet the 500 kilowatt load requirement. 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 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 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
end-use customers as provided in this division.
(b) The commission shall reinstate the right of retail
end end-use 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 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
issues necessary to reinstate direct transactions
in the direct access phase of commission Rulemaking 02-01-011.
This subdivision does not require update proceedings on the
direct access cost responsibility surcharge to be considered a
condition of reinstating the right of retail end-use customers to
acquire electricity from electric service providers.
(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) Customers receiving service from electric service
providers on January 1, 2004, shall continue to have the right to
obtain electricity from electric service providers, and any customer
exempt from a direct access cost responsibility surcharge on that
date, shall remain exempt, unless and until that time when, the
customer returns to bundled utility service and thereafter obtains
service from an electric service provider.
(d) Retail end-use customers under single ownership may aggregate
their load served by multiple meters, to meet the 500 kilowatt load
requirement of subdivision (b). The commission shall design a
regulatory framework to implement permissible customer aggregation
pursuant to this subdivision by June 23, 2004.
(e) The department shall have the same rights with respect
to the payment by retail end use end-use
customers for power sold by the department as do providers of
power to those customers.
(d)
(f) 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)
(g) 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.