BILL ANALYSIS
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|SENATE RULES COMMITTEE | AB 920|
|Office of Senate Floor Analyses | |
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THIRD READING
Bill No: AB 920
Author: Huffman (D), et al
Amended: 9/4/09 in Senate
Vote: 21
SENATE ENERGY, U.&C. COMMITTEE : 6-4, 7/7/09
AYES: Padilla, Corbett, Kehoe, Lowenthal, Simitian,
Wiggins
NOES: Benoit, Calderon, Cox, Wright
NO VOTE RECORDED: Strickland
SENATE APPROPRIATIONS COMMITTEE : 8-5, 8/27/09
AYES: Kehoe, Corbett, Hancock, Leno, Oropeza, Price, Wolk,
Yee
NOES: Cox, Denham, Runner, Walters, Wyland
ASSEMBLY FLOOR : 51-26, 6/1/09 - See last page for vote
SUBJECT : Solar and wind distributed generation
SOURCE : Environment California
DIGEST : This bill expands the current net-metering
programs for wind and solar, to allow the net-metered
customers to sell any excess electricity they produce over
the course of a year to their electric utility.
Senate Floor Amendments 9/4/09 prevent this bill from being
chaptered out by AB 560 (Skinner).
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ANALYSIS :
Existing law:
1. Creates the California Solar Initiative (CSI), a $3.3
billion declining rebate program to offset the cost of
installing solar panels on homes, businesses, and public
buildings. The program requires that in order to be
eligible for CSI rebates, among other requirements, the
solar energy must be intended to offset part or all of
the consumer's own electricity demand (the panels should
not produce more electricity than the customer's
historic peak demand).
2. Requires IOUs to offer customers with solar or wind
generation that is smaller than one megawatt in size, a
net-metered tariff where the customer can sell back
electricity produced from the solar or wind facility
that exceeds that customer's usage at a moment in time
as a bill credit against electricity that the customer
receives from the utility when their renewable facility
produces less than the customer is consuming. Caps the
total amount of solar and wind generation that can be
subject to net-metering at 2.5 percent of each utility's
aggregate peak demand.
3. Requires all POUs other than the Los Angeles Department
of Water and Power (LADWP) to offer a net-metering
tariff as provided in 2) above, or offer a co-metering
tariff where the bill credit is based only on the cost
of generation and not the entire retail rate. Exempts
LADWP from the net-metering and co-metering
requirements.
This bill:
1. Defines a "net surplus customer-generator" as a
customer-generator that generates more electricity in a
12-month period than the customer purchases from the
utility in that same period.
2. Requires all investor owned utilities (IOUs) and
publicly owned utilities (POUs) that offer net-metering
to purchase all net surplus electricity produced from
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the customer's wind or solar generator at a rate set by
the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) or
POU. The rate shall be set to provide the
customer-generator "just and reasonable" compensation
for the surplus energy sales, leave all other ratepayers
indifferent, and shall not result in any cost shifting
to non-customer generators.
3. Caps the amount of net surplus electricity a utility
must purchase at 2.5 percent of each electric utility's
aggregate peak demand.
4. Provides that the utility shall own all of the renewable
attributes or renewable energy credits (RECs) associated
with any net surplus electricity it must purchase. The
customer will retain REC of any renewable energy credit
associated with any electricity generated by the
customer that is utilized by the customer.
FISCAL EFFECT : Appropriation: No Fiscal Com.: Yes
Local: Yes
According to the Senate Appropriations Committee analysis:
Fiscal Impact (in thousands)
Major Provisions 2009-10 2010-11 2011-12
Fund
Regulatory oversight $125 $335
$210 Special*
Increased electricity costs Unknown
Various
for state agencies
*Public Utilities Commission Utilities Reimbursement
Account
SUPPORT : (Verified 9/4/09)
Environment California (source)
American Federation of State, County and Municipal
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Employees
Breathe California
California Association of Realtors
California State Grange
Clean Power Campaign
Coalition for Clean Air
Green California
National Parks Conservation Association
Nonprofit Housing Association of Northern California
Pacific Environment
Planning and Conservation League
San Diego County
Sierra Club California
OPPOSITION : (Verified 9/1/09)
California Association of Small and Multi-jurisdictional
Utilities
Pacific Gas & Electric
Public Utilities Commission (unless amended)
Sacramento Municipal Utility District
ARGUMENTS IN SUPPORT : According to the author's office,
the purpose of this bill is to allow electric utility
customers who install solar or wind generators on their
property to be paid by their electric utility for all the
"surplus" electricity they produce. The author's office
believes this will encourage homeowners and businesses to
conserve more electricity (and thus have more surplus power
they can sell to the utility) and will allow property
owners to install the maximum number of solar panels on
their home.
Under net-metering, electric utilities are required to "buy
back" any electricity generated by a customer-owned
generator solar or wind generator that is not used by that
customer. When the customer generates electricity, he/she
uses most of it for his or her own facility. Any excess
electricity 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
distributed to the electricity grid by the customer. This
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results in the utility "buying" the excess power and paying
for it in the form of a bill credit.
ARGUMENTS IN OPPOSITION : The CPUC states in opposition
"This bill fundamentally changes the intent of the net
energy metering (NEM) statute from a program that
facilitates onsite electricity generation and consumption
to a program that supports onsite customer generators to be
paid as wholesale power producers. Customers currently
receive significant ratepayer support to be onsite customer
generators, and net surplus compensation would add another
benefit to solar customers before the completion of the
CPUC's report on the costs and benefits of NEM, due to the
legislature January 1, 2010."
ASSEMBLY FLOOR :
AYES: Adams, Ammiano, Arambula, Beall, Blakeslee,
Blumenfield, Brownley, Buchanan, Caballero, Charles
Calderon, Carter, Chesbro, Coto, Davis, De La Torre, De
Leon, Eng, Evans, Feuer, Fong, Fuentes, Galgiani, Hall,
Hayashi, Hernandez, Hill, Huffman, Krekorian, Lieu,
Bonnie Lowenthal, Ma, Mendoza, Monning, Nava, Nestande,
John A. Perez, V. Manuel Perez, Portantino, Price,
Ruskin, Salas, Saldana, Skinner, Smyth, Solorio, Swanson,
Torlakson, Torres, Torrico, Yamada, Bass
NOES: Anderson, Bill Berryhill, Tom Berryhill, Conway,
Cook, DeVore, Duvall, Emmerson, Fletcher, Fuller, Gaines,
Garrick, Gilmore, Hagman, Harkey, Huber, Jeffries,
Knight, Logue, Miller, Niello, Nielsen, Silva, Audra
Strickland, Tran, Villines
NO VOTE RECORDED: Block, Furutani, Jones
DLW:do 9/8/09 Senate Floor Analyses
SUPPORT/OPPOSITION: SEE ABOVE
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