Existing law vests the Public Utilities Commission with regulatory authority over public utilities. Existing law authorizes the commission to fix the rates and charges for every public utility and requires that those rates and charges be just and reasonable. Existing law, with certain exceptions, prohibits a public utility from changing any rate, except upon a showing before the commission and a finding by the commission that the new rate is justified. With certain exceptions, whenever any electrical, gas, heat, telephone, water, or sewer system corporation files an application to change any rate for the services or commodities furnished by it, existing law requires that the corporation furnish its customers notice of its application to the commission for approval of the new rate.
This bill would require a public utility’s application requesting
authorization for or recovery of capital expenditures to include its best estimate of the application’s impact on its annual revenue requirement for each year that the capital expenditures described in the application are expected to remain in the application’s rate base if the application is approved or conditionally approved and to include the net present value of those impacts. The bill would further require the commission to require the public utility to provide supporting workpapers and calculations for the estimates.
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 the above-described requirements would be a part of the act, and because a violation of a commission action implementing the above-described requirements would be a crime, the bill would impose a state-mandated local program.
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.