BILL ANALYSIS                                                                                                                                                                                                              1
          1





                SENATE ENERGY, UTILITIES AND COMMUNICATIONS COMMITTEE
                               DEBRA BOWEN, CHAIRWOMAN
          

          SB 770 -  Chesbro                                 Hearing Date:   
          May 6, 2003                S
          As Amended:         May 5, 2003              FISCAL       B
                                                                        
                                                                        7
                                                                        7
                                                                        0


                                      DESCRIPTION
           
           Current law  establishes minimum levels of electric service  
          quality.

           This bill  finds there have been allegations of inadequate  
          electric service quality in northern Napa County.

           This bill  requires the California Public Utilities Commission  
          (CPUC) to order Pacific Gas & Electric (PG&E) to undertake a  
          service quality study in the Napa County area.

                                      BACKGROUND
           
          The Pacific Union College (College), an accredited four-year  
          college affiliated with the Seventh-Day Adventist Church, was  
          founded in 1882 and has had concerns with the quality of its  
          electric service for many years.  While the College is on  
          interruptible rates (the A-20 interruptible tariff), it believes  
          it has suffered from many outages beyond those permitted by its  
          tariff.  

          The College believes these problems result from the fact that  
          it's located at the end of an electric circuit.  The College  
          believes its service quality would improve if that electric  
          circuit were to be re-engineered and while the College says it  
          has talked with PG&E about its concerns, the problem hasn't been  
          resolved.  As a result, the College is considering building its  
          own natural gas-fueled powerplant.

                                       COMMENTS











           
           1.Prior Version of Bill  .  The prior version of this bill would  
            have provided significant ratepayer subsidies to an electric  
            generation facility that the College was hoping to build.  The  
            measure also would have exempted the College from the ban on  
            engaging in direct access power transactions.  Both of those  
            provisions have been removed from the bill.

           2.Self-Study  .  This measure requires the CPUC to order PG&E to  
            do an analysis of the quality of the electricity services  
            offered to the College and surrounding areas in Napa County.   
            The goal of the study is to provide a baseline for determining  
            whether PG&E should be required to  improve its facilities.
           
                                       POSITIONS
           
           Sponsor:
           
          Author

           Support:
           
          Industrial Power Technology

           Oppose:
           
          Pacific Gas and Electric Company (prior version)

          







































          Randy Chinn 
          SB 770 Analysis
          Hearing Date:  May 6, 2003