The California Building Standards Law establishes the California Building Standards Commission within the Department of General Services. Existing law requires the commission to approve and adopt building standards and to codify those standards in the California Building Standards Code, which is required to be published once every 3 years. Existing law requires the State Fire Marshal to research and develop, and authorizes the State Fire Marshal to propose to the California Building Standards Commission, mandatory building standards for fire resistance based on occupancy risk categories in very high, high, and moderate California fire severity zones, as provided.

This bill would require the State Fire Marshal, before the next triennial edition of the California Building Standards Code adopted after January 1, 2025, to propose to the commission updates to the fire standards relating to requirements for lithium-based battery systems, as provided. The bill would require these requirements for lithium-based battery systems to be consistent with the requirements for lead-acid and nickel-cadmium batteries, as provided. updates to address the specific environments in which communications utilities are to deploy the lithium-based battery systems in order to meet specified requirements relating to backup electricity for telecommunications infrastructure, as provided.