Bill Text: CA AB427 | 2013-2014 | Regular Session | Amended
Bill Title: Electrical corporations: uneconomic cost recovery: bottoming cycle waste heat recovery.
Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Democrat 1-0)
Status: (Introduced - Dead) 2014-02-03 - From committee: Filed with the Chief Clerk pursuant to Joint Rule 56. [AB427 Detail]
Download: California-2013-AB427-Amended.html
BILL NUMBER: AB 427 AMENDED
BILL TEXT
AMENDED IN ASSEMBLY JANUARY 6, 2014
AMENDED IN ASSEMBLY APRIL 22, 2013
INTRODUCED BY Assembly Member Mullin
FEBRUARY 15, 2013
An act to amend Section 371 of the Public Utilities Code, relating
to electrical corporations.
LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST
AB 427, as amended, Mullin. Electrical corporations: uneconomic
cost recovery: bottoming cycle waste heat recovery.
Existing law specifies that, in recognition of statutory authority
and past investments existing as of December 20, 1995, and subject
to a specified fire wall, the uneconomic costs of specified
energy-generation-related assets and obligations are applied to each
customer based on the amount of electricity purchased by the customer
from an electrical corporation, subject to changes in usage
occurring in the normal course of business. Existing law specifies
those changes that constitute "changes in usage occurring in the
normal course of business" to include, among others, changes in fuel
switching.
This bill would additionally include the production of electricity
using bottom bottoming cycle waste
heat recovery, as defined, as changes in fuel switching. The bill
would exempt from all nonbypassable charges approved by the Public
Utilities Commission changes in usage occurring in the normal course
of business , and would require the commission ensure that the
customers made exempt from paying those charges pay their cost of
receiving service from an electrical corporation . With
respect to electricity produced using bottoming cycle waste heat
recovery, the bill would limit the amount of electricity exempt from
those nonbypassable charges to a cumulative total of 200 megawatts of
load within all service areas of electrical corporations and would
prohibit nonbypassable charges avoided in this manner from being
recovered from residential ratepayers and ratepayers with
an average monthly usage of 500 kilowatthours of electricity or less.
Vote: majority. Appropriation: no. Fiscal committee: no
yes . State-mandated local program: no.
THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA DO ENACT AS FOLLOWS:
SECTION 1. Section 371 of the Public Utilities Code is amended to
read:
371. (a) Except as provided in Sections 372 and 374, the
uneconomic costs provided in Sections 367, 368, 375, and 376 shall be
applied to each customer based on the amount of electricity
purchased by the customer from an electrical corporation or alternate
supplier of electricity, subject to changes in usage occurring in
the normal course of business.
(b) (1) Changes in usage occurring in the normal course of
business are those resulting from changes in business cycles,
termination of operations, departure from the utility service
territory, weather, reduced production, modifications to production
equipment or operations, changes in production or manufacturing
processes, fuel switching, including installation of fuel cells,
enhancement or increased efficiency of equipment or performance of
existing self-cogeneration equipment, the production of electricity
using bottoming cycle waste heat recovery, replacement of existing
cogeneration equipment with new power generation equipment of similar
size as described in paragraph (1) of subdivision (a) of Section
372, installation of demand-side management equipment or facilities,
energy conservation efforts, or other similar factors.
(2) For the purposes of this subdivision,
section, "bottoming cycle waste heat recovery" means a
form of energy efficiency by which the use of
waste heat from a commercial or industrial process is used
to produce electricity, excluding any electricity
produced as a result of combusting fossil fuels to supplement the
waste heat. electricity without consuming fuel to
supplement the waste heat and to supply electricity for onsite use
without exporting electricity to the electrical grid.
(c) Changes (1)
Except as provided in paragraph (2), changes in
usage occurring in the normal course of business as described in
subdivision (b) are exempt from all nonbypassable charges approved by
the commission.
(2) For electricity produced using bottoming cycle waste heat
recovery, the exemption specified in paragraph (1) applies only to
the cumulative total of 200 megawatts of load within all service
areas of electrical corporations.
(d) A nonbypassable charge avoided pursuant to subdivision (c) as
a result of the use of electricity produced using bottoming cycle
waste heat recovery shall not be recovered from residential
ratepayers and ratepayers with an average monthly usage of 500
kilowatthours of electricity or less.
(e) The commission shall ensure that customers exempt from the
nonbypassable charges pursuant to subdivision (c) pay their cost of
receiving service from an electrical corporation.
(d)
(f) This section does not exempt or alter the
obligation of a customer to comply with Chapter 5 (commencing with
Section 119075) of Part 15 of Division 104 of the Health and Safety
Code. Nothing in this section shall be construed as a limitation on
the ability of residential customers to alter their pattern of
electricity purchases by activities on the customer side of the
meter.
