BILL NUMBER: SB 641 INTRODUCED
BILL TEXT
INTRODUCED BY Senator Campbell
FEBRUARY 22, 2005
An act to amend Section 80110 of the Water Code, relating to
electricity.
LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST
SB 641, as introduced, Campbell. Electricity: electrical
restructuring.
The existing Public Utilities Act requires the Public Utilities
Commission pursuant to electrical restructuring, to authorize and
facilitate direct transactions between electricity suppliers and
retail end-use customers. However, existing law also suspends the
right of retail end-use customers, other than community choice
aggregators, as defined, to acquire service from certain electricity
suppliers for a period of time to be determined by the commission,
until the Department of Water Resources no longer supplies
electricity under that law.
This bill would delete the suspension of direct transactions and
would require that the commission, on or before January 1, 2007,
reestablish the right of end-use customers to enter into direct
transactions. The bill would provide that, notwithstanding other
laws, the right of end-use customers to enter into direct
transactions is to be pursuant to a core/noncore structure, to be
defined by the commission. In implementing the core/noncore
structure, the commission would be required to ensure that end-use
customers that enter into direct transactions bear a fair share of
the department's costs to purchase electricity or to accept a
proportionate allocation of the electrical generation resources used
by an electrical corporation to serve departing customers.
Under existing law, a violation of the Public Utilities Act or an
order or direction of the commission is a crime.
Because the existing provisions for electrical restructuring are a
part of the act and the implementation by the Public Utilities
Commission of a core/noncore structure for direct transactions that
is required by the bill would require an order or decision of the
commission, the bill would impose a state-mandated local program by
creating a new crime.
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 80110 of the Water Code is amended to read:
80110. 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. Such
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 Emergency Proclamation dated January 17, 2001. For
purposes of this division and except as otherwise provided in this
section, the Public Utility 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 the date that the act that adds this section
becomes effective for residential customers for existing baseline
quantities or usage by those customers of up to 130 percent of
existing baseline quantities, until such time as 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.
After the passage of such period of time after the effective
date of this section as shall be determined by the commission, the
right of retail end use customers pursuant to Article 6 (commencing
with Section 360) of Chapter 2.3 of Part 1 of Division 1 of the
Public Utilities Code to acquire service from other providers shall
be suspended until the department no longer supplies power hereunder.
The Public Utilities Commission shall, on or before
January 1, 2007, reestablish the right of end-use customers to enter
into direct transactions. Notwithstanding any other provision of
law, the right of end-use customers to enter into direct transactions
shall be pursuant to a core/noncore structure, to be defined by the
Public Utilities Commission. The core/noncore structure implemented
by the Public Utilities Commission shall require that end-use
customers that enter into direct transactions bear a fair share of
the department's costs to purchase electricity or to accept a
proportionate allocation of the electrical generation resources used
by the electrical corporation to serve the departing customer.
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 such those
customers.
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.