Bill Text: CA SB288 | 2019-2020 | Regular Session | Amended
Bill Title: California Environmental Quality Act: exemptions: transportation-related projects.
Spectrum: Slight Partisan Bill (Democrat 2-1)
Status: (Passed) 2020-09-28 - Chaptered by Secretary of State. Chapter 200, Statutes of 2020. [SB288 Detail]
Download: California-2019-SB288-Amended.html
Amended
IN
Senate
May 17, 2019 |
Amended
IN
Senate
May 01, 2019 |
Amended
IN
Senate
March 28, 2019 |
Senate Bill | No. 288 |
Introduced by Senators Wiener and Nielsen (Coauthor: Senator Stone) (Coauthors: Assembly Members Bloom, Flora, Friedman, Gallagher, and Robert Rivas) |
February 13, 2019 |
LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST
This bill would require the PUC and State Energy Resources Conservation and Development Commission (Energy Commission) to establish for the electrical corporations and local publicly owned electric utilities, respectively, a streamlined and standardized process for review by those utilities of interconnection requests for customers seeking to install renewable energy and energy storage systems on the customer side of the meter to minimize uncertainty and the time and cost of the review, as specified.
This bill would require the PUC and the Energy Commission, by June 1, 2020, and June 1 of each year thereafter, to submit a report to the Legislature on information regarding the interconnection of renewable energy and energy storage systems by the electrical corporations and the local publicly owned electric utilities, respectively, for purposes of evaluating the performance of those utilities in reviewing interconnection
requests.
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.
The Legislature finds and declares all of the following:(a)(1)On or before June 1, 2020, and on or before June 1 of each year thereafter, the commission shall submit an annual report evaluating electrical corporations’ performance of interconnection review to the Legislature containing data of electrical corporations, compiled by year of initial interconnection request and segregated by market segment, including low-income customers and customers located in low-income and disadvantaged communities, and technology type, for customer-sited electrical resources, including energy storage systems proposed for interconnection with the electrical grid, and containing other information that the commission may require.
(2)On or before June 1, 2020, and on or before June 1 of each year thereafter, the Energy Commission shall submit a report on local publicly owned electric utilities’ performance of interconnection review to the Legislature containing data of local publicly owned electric utilities, compiled by year of initial interconnection request and segregated by market segment, including low-income customers and customers located in low-income and disadvantaged communities, and technology type, for customer-sited electrical resources, including energy storage systems proposed for interconnection with the electrical grid, and containing other information that the Energy Commission may
require.
(b)The reports required pursuant to this section shall include all of the following information:
(1)The amount of time that the electrical corporations or local publicly owned electric utilities have taken to complete each step in the review of interconnection requests.
(2)The number of interconnection requests initially received and the number of interconnection requests deemed complete.
(3)The amount of fees charged for processing the interconnection requests and the basis for those fees.
(4)A summary of challenges in reducing the amount of time for interconnection review and
improvements to the interconnection review process that occurred in the previous year.
SEC. 3.SEC. 2.
Section 2817 is added to the Public Utilities Code, to read:2817.
(a) For purposes of this section, the following terms have the following meanings:(a)For purposes of this section, the following terms have the following meanings:
(1)“Customer-sited renewable energy and energy storage systems” means renewable energy systems and energy storage systems located on a customer’s owned, leased, or rented premises, interconnected and operating in parallel with the electrical grid.
(2)“Energy storage system” means commercially available
technology that is capable of absorbing energy, storing it for a period of time, and thereafter dispatching the energy.
(3)“Local publicly owned electric utility” means a local publicly owned electric utility, as defined in Section 224.3, with an annual electrical demand exceeding 700 gigawatthours, as determined on a three-year average commencing January 1, 2016.
(4)“Renewable energy system” means a renewable electrical generation facility as defined
in Section 25741 of the Public Resources Code.
(b)By January 1, 2021, the commission shall do all of the following:
(1)Consider whether to create one or more tariffs for customer-sited energy storage systems that export electricity to the electrical
grid in a manner that ensures a reduction in emissions of greenhouse gases and reduces overall costs to ratepayers served by the electrical utility.
(2)Consider one or more tariffs for customer-sited
renewable energy and energy storage systems to support grid reliability and community resiliency in the event of emergencies or grid outages that ensure there are not cost shifts to nonparticipating customers.
(3)Assess whether to modify existing tariffs, interconnection rules, and programs to remove barriers to the participation of customer-sited renewable energy and energy storage systems intended to provide energy, capacity, and ancillary
services in a manner that ensures a reduction in overall costs to ratepayers served by the electrical utility. These barriers include, but are not limited to, prohibitions on exports from energy storage systems in commission interconnection rules and the lack of clear and consistent guidelines on quantifying the incremental capacity of customer-sited energy resources.
(c)By January 1, 2021, the governing board of each local publicly owned electric utility shall perform those actions specified in subdivision (b).
(d)The commission and the governing board of each local publicly owned electric utility shall ensure all of the following:
(1)Customers with customer-sited renewable energy or energy storage systems
are not prohibited by the utility from generating and storing electricity from the renewable energy system for onsite consumption and are not charged for electricity from the renewable energy system that is consumed onsite, whether it is used simultaneously with its generation or stored and consumed at a later time.
(2)Customers with customer-sited renewable energy or energy storage systems can interconnect to the electric grid in a timely and cost-effective manner if the system is in accordance with requirements established by the commission or the local publicly owned electric utility, as applicable, to ensure reliable grid operation and the safety of utility workers, and if the systems meet all applicable state and local safety and electrical code requirements.
(3)Customers with customer-sited renewable energy or energy storage systems are not subject to discriminatory fees or charges levied as a result of installing and using
customer-sited renewable energy or energy storage systems.
(e)This section and Section 2817 do not limit the ability of the commission or the governing boards of local publicly owned electric utilities to alter the valuation of energy exported to the distribution grid from customer-sited renewable energy systems or to assign one-time fees based on the costs of connecting renewable energy or energy storage systems to the distribution grid.