BILL ANALYSIS
AB 728
Page 1
CONCURRENCE IN SENATE AMENDMENTS
AB 728 (Negrete McLeod)
As Amended September 1, 2005
Majority vote
-----------------------------------------------------------------
|ASSEMBLY: |78-0 |(May 26, 2005) |SENATE: |35-1 |(September 6, |
| | | | | |2005) |
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Original Committee Reference: U. & C.
SUMMARY : Expands an existing pilot project allowing net energy
metering for customer-owned electric generation projects fueled
by manure methane production (biogas digestion).
The Senate amendments make technical clarifying changes and
limits eligibility for the pilot project to biogas digesters
that have installed the best available control technology
required by the regional air pollution control district at the
time of installation. .
FISCAL EFFECT :
1)Absorbable costs to the California Public Utilities Commission
(PUC) to review and approve tariffs for biogas projects under
the pilot program.
2)One-time minor costs for PUC to complete a legislative report.
COMMENTS : SBX1 5(Sher), Chapter 7, Statutes of 2001, in part
appropriates $15 million for grants for pilot projects designed
to encourage the development of biogas digestion power
production technologies which convert methane gas from manure
into electricity. AB 2228 (Negrete McLeod), Chapter 846,
Statutes of 2002, establishes a pilot project to permit net
metering for such projects. AB 228 limits the size of eligible
biogas digesters to units producing one megawatt (MW) or less
and the total amount of generation that would be eligible to
have a net meter to no more than five MWs in each investor owned
utility service territory.
The pilot project was assisted by the appropriation in SBX1 5
and had a sunset date of January 1, 2006. According to the
sponsors, five customers have installed biogas digester
AB 728
Page 2
generators and are operating under the net-metering tariff and
eight customers are in the process of constructing biogas
digester generators. The entire $15 million appropriation has
been spent. The author seeks to expand both the time frame and
the scope of the pilot program to include larger generation
units.
Under net metering, the electric utility is required to buy back
any electricity generated by a customer-owned generator as
measured by an electric meter that can measure the flow of
electricity in both directions. When the customer is generating
excess power, the electricity not being used passes through the
meter and is distributed to the electricity grid. At the end of
the year, the electric corporation calculates the amount of
electricity distributed to the grid by the customer and reduces
the customer's annual bill by the amount of electricity
generated by the customer multiplied by the utility's standard
generation costs.
AB 2228 did not contain stated goals of the pilot project or
require a report to be conducted that summarizes the project to
determine the project's effectiveness. Consequently, no data
have been compiled to determine the impacts the pilot project
has had in efforts to reduce emissions from dairies, on the
electricity grid's reliability and safety, or on to ratepayers.
As amended, this bill requires a report to Legislature by
December 31, 2009, regarding the program's impact on air
emissions and on transmission and distribution grid reliability.
Analysis Prepared by : Edward Randolph / U. & C. / (916)
319-2083
FN: 0013092