BILL NUMBER: SB 697	INTRODUCED
	BILL TEXT


INTRODUCED BY   Senator Soto

                        FEBRUARY 21, 2003

   An act to add Section 366.3 to the Public Utilities Code, relating
to public utilities.


	LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST


   SB 697, as introduced, Soto.  Public utilities: community choice
aggregation.
   Existing law, relating to transactions between an electric service
provider, as defined, and end use customers, authorizes customers to
aggregate their electrical loads as members of their local community
with community choice aggregators, as defined, and authorizes a
community choice aggregator to aggregate the electrical load of
interested electricity consumers within its boundaries.  Existing law
requires a community choice aggregator to file an implementation
plan with the Public Utilities Commission in order for the commission
to determine a cost-recovery mechanism to be imposed on the
community choice aggregator to prevent a shifting of costs to an
electrical corporation's bundled customers.
   This bill would require the commission, upon the filing of a
petition or other appropriate procedure determined by the commission,
and upon the meeting of certain conditions, to establish separate
distribution service rates and charges by an electrical corporation,
for electricity, from an eligible renewable electricity generation
source, as defined, that is supplied to end use customers by an
electric service provider pursuant to an implementation plan with a
community choice aggregator, where the electricity is transported
within a single local distribution system, as defined.  The separate
distribution charge would, to the extent permitted by federal law,
avoid charges for transmission services and would specify how any
applicable transmission charges would be allocated.  The separate
distribution charge would pass on any distribution system cost
savings resulting from the development of distributed energy
resources to the end use customer of the community choice aggregator.
  The bill would further limit the imposition of fees and charges by
the California Independent System Operator.  Because the violation of
an order or decision of the commission is a crime, this bill would
impose a state-mandated local program.
  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.  Section 366.3 is added to the Public Utilities Code, to
read:
   366.3.  (a) For purposes of this section:
   (1) "Community choice aggregator" has the same meaning as
specified in Section 331.1.
   (2) "Distribution wheeling" is the transportation of electricity
from an electric service provider to end use customers of a community
choice aggregator, within a single local distribution system.
   (3) "Electric service provider" has the same meaning as specified
in Section 218.3.
   (4) "Eligible renewable electricity generation source" means an
electrical generating facility that is either an "eligible renewable
energy resource" as specified in Section 399.12 or that meets the
definition of "in-state renewable electricity generation technology"
as specified in Section 383.5.
   (5) "Local distribution system" means an electrical distribution
system operated by an electrical corporation that may be served from
a single interstate transmission facility. "Local distribution system"
includes an electrical distribution system that is served from two
or more interstate transmission facilities for the convenience of the
electrical corporation, that could be served from a single
interstate transmission facility. "Local distribution system"
includes primary and secondary distribution lines, which deliver
electricity, and substations and distribution transformers, which
lower electric voltage from high voltage transmission levels
(generally between 50,000 and 500,000 volts) to primary and secondary
distribution and utilization levels.
   (b) Upon petition or other appropriate procedure established by
the commission, the commission shall establish separate distribution
service rates and charges by an electrical corporation, for
distribution wheeling between an electric service provider supplying
electricity from an eligible renewable electricity generation source
to end users of a community choice aggregator that are within the
same local distribution system, that do all of the following:
   (1) To the extent permissible under federal law, avoids charges
for transmission services.  To the extent transmission service
charges are applicable, those charges shall be allocated as
noncustomer specific costs within the electrical corporation's
otherwise applicable cost-allocation methodology.  To the extent
transmission charges are applicable, they shall be recovered from all
customers within that same customer class or proportionately from
subclasses of the customer class.
   (2) Pass any distribution system cost savings resulting from the
development of distributed energy resources to the end use customers
of the community choice aggregator.
   (c) The commission shall require, as a condition to establishing
the separate distribution service rates and charges, that:
   (1) End use customers have interval metering.
   (2) Electric service providers providing electricity from an
eligible renewable electricity generation source, employ suitable
safety monitoring or instrumentation, in accordance with industry
standards, as determined by the commission.
   (d) The California Independent System Operator shall impose no fee
or charge upon electricity delivered by an electric service provider
from an eligible renewable electricity generation source, to end use
customers of a community choice aggregator, that is delivered
through distribution wheeling. The California Independent System
Operator shall not impute the impact of any net load or net
generation, including net ancillary services, of any activity not
directly interconnected to transmission, on transmission system costs
without also allocating the benefit of all probable load and
generation diversity, methodological inaccuracies or measurement
errors to such loads and generation not directly interconnected or to
the distribution system to which they are directly interconnected.
The California Independent System Operator shall not calculate
charges for any transmission service component of electricity
delivered by an electric service provider from an eligible renewable
electricity generation source, to end use customers of a community
choice aggregator, that is delivered through distribution wheeling,
from any gross load or gross generation activity not directly
interconnected to the transmission system.  The California
Independent System Operator shall not attribute cost causation on a
transmission system to any electrical load delivered by distribution
wheeling.
  SEC. 2.  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 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 XIII B of the California
Constitution.