Under existing law, the Public Utilities Commission (PUC) has regulatory authority over public utilities, including electrical corporations, while local publicly owned electric utilities are under the direction of their governing boards. Existing law requires the PUC and the State Energy Resources Conservation and Development Commission (Energy Commission) to undertake specified actions to advance the state’s clean energy and pollution reduction objectives, including, where feasible, cost effective, and consistent with other state policy objectives, to increase the use of large- and small-scale energy storage with a variety of technologies, including green electrolytic hydrogen, defined as hydrogen gas produced through electrolysis and not from fossil fuel, targeted energy efficiency, demand response, eligible renewable energy resources or other renewable and nonrenewable technologies with
zero or lowest feasible emissions of greenhouse gases, criteria pollutants, and toxic air contaminants onsite to protect system reliability.
This bill would additionally require the PUC and Energy Commission to take into account opportunities to increase grid-responsive production of green electrolytic hydrogen for use in the transportation sector.
Existing law requires the PUC, State Air Resources Board (state board), and Energy Commission to consider green electrolytic hydrogen as an eligible form of energy storage, and to consider other potential uses of green electrolytic hydrogen.
This bill would include use of green electrolytic hydrogen as an alternative transportation fuel as a potential other use for these purposes and would provide that grid-responsive production of green electrolytic hydrogen using excess or low-cost renewable generation and the use of that hydrogen as a
mechanism of energy storage to displace the use of fossil fuels to generate electricity and as a transportation fuel are clean energy and pollution reduction objectives and technologies of this state.
The Charge Ahead California Initiative, administered by the State Air Resources Board (state board), among other things, requires the state board to identify and adopt appropriate policies, rules, or regulations to remove regulatory disincentives preventing certain retail sellers of electricity from facilitating the achievement of greenhouse gas emission reductions in nonelectrical industry sectors through increased investments in transportation electrification.
Existing law, enacted as part of the Clean Energy and Pollution Reduction Act of 2015, requires the PUC, in consultation with the Energy Commission and state board, to direct electrical corporations to file applications for programs and investments to accelerate
widespread transportation electrification, as defined, to achieve specified results. The PUC is required to approve, or modify and approve, programs and investments in transportation electrification, including those that deploy charging infrastructure, through a reasonable cost recovery mechanism, if they meet specified requirements.
The bill would revise the definition of “transportation electrification” for this purpose to include the use of electricity from sources of green electrolytic hydrogen for use as a transportation fuel. The bill would require the PUC to approve, or modify and approve, programs and investments in transportation electrification proposed by an electrical corporation, including those that deploy charging infrastructure, hydrogen fueling infrastructure, and the production of green electrolytic hydrogen as a transportation fuel, via a reasonable cost recovery mechanism, if they meet specified requirements.
Existing law requires that the governing board of a local publicly owned electric utility with an annual electrical demand exceeding 700 gigawatthours adopt an integrated resource plan and a process for updating the plan at least once every 5 years to ensure the utility achieves specified objectives. Existing law requires that the integrated resource plan address procurement of, among other things, transportation electrification and a diversified procurement portfolio consisting of both short-term and long-term electricity, electricity-related, and demand response products.
By expanding the definition of transportation electrification the bill would expand the matter that a local publicly owned electric utility must consider when updating an integrated resource plan, thereby imposing 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.