Bill Text: CA AB2693 | 2017-2018 | Regular Session | Introduced
NOTE: There are more recent revisions of this legislation. Read Latest Draft
Bill Title: Public Utilities Commission: telecommunications service: natural disasters: reports.
Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Democrat 1-0)
Status: (Engrossed - Dead) 2018-08-16 - In committee: Held under submission. [AB2693 Detail]
Download: California-2017-AB2693-Introduced.html
Bill Title: Public Utilities Commission: telecommunications service: natural disasters: reports.
Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Democrat 1-0)
Status: (Engrossed - Dead) 2018-08-16 - In committee: Held under submission. [AB2693 Detail]
Download: California-2017-AB2693-Introduced.html
CALIFORNIA LEGISLATURE—
2017–2018 REGULAR SESSION
| Assembly Bill | No. 2693 |
| Introduced by Assembly Member Quirk |
February 15, 2018 |
An act to add Section 454.57 to the Public Utilities Code, relating to energy.
LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST
AB 2693, as introduced, Quirk.
Natural gas-fired powerplants.
Under existing law, the Public Utilities Commission has regulatory jurisdiction over electrical and gas corporations. Existing law authorizes the commission to fix the rates and charges for every public utility, including electrical and gas corporations, and requires that those rates and charges be just and reasonable.
This bill would require the commission to analyze and determine which natural gas-fired electric generation powerplants in existence at the time of the analysis are needed to ensure long-term electric reliability in the state. The bill would require the commission to direct electrical corporations to contract for those electrical services with those powerplants determined to be necessary and to authorize the electrical corporations to recover the costs of those contracts from their ratepayers. The bill would require the commission
to require gas corporations to develop a gas tariff for natural gas-fired powerplants authorizing the collection of rate revenues mostly in demand charges, as specified.
Under existing law, a violation of the Public Utilities Act or any order, decision, rule, direction, demand, or requirement of the commission is a crime.
Because this bill would be a part of the act and because a violation of an order or decision of the PUC implementing its requirements would be a crime, 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.
Digest Key
Vote: MAJORITY Appropriation: NO Fiscal Committee: YES Local Program: YESBill Text
The people of the State of California do enact as follows:
SECTION 1.
(a) The Legislature finds and declares all of the following:(1) The California Global Warming Solutions Act of 2006 (Division 25.5 (commencing with Section 38500) of the Health and Safety Code) requires the state to reduce its emissions of greenhouse gases to 40 percent below 1990 levels by 2030.
(2) The California Renewables Portfolio Standard Program (Article 16 (commencing with Section 399.11) of Chapter 2.3 of Part 1 of Division 1 of the Public Utilities Code) requires that 50 percent of the state’s electricity come from renewable resources by 2030.
(3) By adopting these
requirements, the Legislature expects load-serving entities to procure a greater quantity of renewable resources and to rely less on natural gas-fired electricity generation. However, for reliability reasons, natural gas-fired generation cannot disappear entirely. Many renewable resources, including solar and wind, are intermittent resources, available only as conditions allow. This intermittency complicates electric grid reliability and to date is primarily addressed by relying on natural gas-fired powerplants that can quickly ramp up and down in their generation of power.
(4) California should begin an orderly phase out of it natural gas-fired powerplants to make room for more renewable generation.
(5) It is evident that many natural gas-fired powerplants are struggling to remain in operation because they are unable to earn sufficient revenues in the Independent System
Operator’s wholesale market.
(6) Requiring electrical corporations to contract with natural gas-fired powerplants deemed essential by the Public Utilities Commission, and requiring all customers to pay those costs, will provide those powerplants with the financial assurances needed to remain in operation.
(b) It is the intent of the Legislature that the Public Utilities Commission should do all of the following:
(1) Analyze California’s existing natural gas-fired powerplants and the future electric supply from other resources to identify which powerplants should remain in on-demand operation to provide essential flexibility and which should be retired to make room for zero-carbon resources.
(2) Direct electrical corporations to procure electrical
services from powerplants identified as essential and provide for cost recovery for those services from ratepayers on a fully nonbypassable basis.
(3) Revise gas tariffs for natural gas-fired powerplants to allow a gas corporation to collect most of its revenues from rates through demand charges and the remaining revenues through volumetric charges to adequately compensate the gas corporations’s fixed distribution costs associated with the delivery of natural gas to those powerplants.
SEC. 2.
Section 454.57 is added to the Public Utilities Code, to read:454.57.
The commission shall do all of the following:(a) Analyze and determine which natural gas-fired electric generation powerplants in existence at the time of the analysis are needed to ensure long-term electric reliability in the state.
(b) Direct electrical corporations to procure electrical services from those powerplants determined to be needed pursuant to subdivision (a) and allow for cost recovery from ratepayers for those services on a fully nonbypassable basis pursuant to paragraph (2) of subdivision (c) of Section 365.1.
(c) Require each gas corporation to develop a gas tariff for natural gas-fired powerplants allowing the gas
corporation supplying the powerplant to collect most of its revenue from rates through demand charges and the remaining revenue through volumetric charges to adequately compensate the gas corporation’s fixed distribution costs associated with the delivery of natural gas to those powerplants.
