Bill Text: CA SB833 | 2021-2022 | Regular Session | Introduced

California Senate Bill 833 (Prior Session Legislation)

NOTE: There are more recent revisions of this legislation. Read Latest Draft

Bill Title: Community Energy Resilience Act of 2022.

Spectrum: Slight Partisan Bill (Democrat 3-1)

Status: (Engrossed - Dead) 2022-08-11 - August 11 hearing: Held in committee and under submission. [SB833 Detail]

Download: California-2021-SB833-Introduced.html

CALIFORNIA LEGISLATURE— 2021–2022 REGULAR SESSION

Senate Bill

No. 833

Introduced by Senator Dodd

January 04, 2022

An act to add Division 16.7 (commencing with Section 26450) to the Public Resources Code, relating to energy.

LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST

SB 833, as introduced, Dodd. Community Energy Resilience Act of 2022.

Existing law establishes within the Natural Resources Agency the State Energy Resources Conservation and Development Commission. Existing law assigns the commission various duties, including applying for and accepting grants, contributions, and appropriations, and awarding grants consistent with the goals and objectives of a program or activity the commission is authorized to implement or administer.

This bill, the Community Energy Resilience Act of 2022, would require the commission to develop and implement a grant program for local governments to develop community energy resilience plans and expedite permit review of distributed energy resources by local governments. The bill would require the plans to be consistent with the city, county, or city and county general plan and other local government planning documents. The bill would require a plan to, among other things, identify critical facilities, locations and facilities where the construction of microgrids or other distributed energy sources could meet local resilience needs, and potential funding sources for implementing projects in the plan, as specified. As a condition of receiving grant funding, the bill would require a local government to submit its plan to the commission within 6 months of adopting the plan.

The bill would require the commission to maintain a publicly available and searchable database of all local governments receiving a grant, annually submit a program summary to the Legislature, and post the summary on its internet website. The bill also would require the commission to develop and maintain on its internet website a publicly available library of community energy resilience planning tools and a directory of prequalified consultants, as specified.

Vote: MAJORITY Appropriation: NO Fiscal Committee: YES Local Program: NO

The people of the State of California do enact as follows:

SECTION 1.

(a) This act shall be known, and may be cited, as the Community Energy Resilience Act of 2022.

(b) The Legislature finds and declares all of the following:

(1) Development of community energy resilience plans will help ensure continuous electricity service during electrical outages, which in recent years have imposed enormous costs on California communities.

(2) Developing reliable and resilient electrical systems for critical facilities is a paramount public safety priority and is necessary to protect the health and well-being of California residents and businesses.

(3) Local governments typically lack the resources or expertise needed for community energy resilience planning sufficient to increase the usage of distributed clean energy resources.

(4) Local governments have the greatest degree of local political accountability, are best able to identify, working in collaboration with community-based organizations, which facilities are most important to local residents and necessary to maintain public health and safety, and can most effectively integrate the permitting and development of distributed energy resources capable of providing electricity during electrical outages.

(5) With proper engineering and planning, local governments are capable of accelerating the deployment of resilient clean electrical systems by taking advantage of state, federal, and other funding sources.

(c) It is the intent of the Legislature to direct the State Energy Resources Conservation and Development Commission to develop procedures necessary for implementation of a new program to provide technical guidance and financial assistance for local governments to develop community energy resilience plans.

SEC. 2.

Division 16.7 (commencing with Section 26450) is added to the Public Resources Code, to read:

DIVISION 16.7. Community Energy Resilience Planning

26450.

For purposes of this division, the following definitions apply:

(a) “Commission” means the State Energy Resources Conservation and Development Commission.

(b) “Community energy resilience plan” means a planning document prepared by a local government pursuant to this division that sets forth a strategy for reducing the adverse impacts associated with electrical outages. Unless the context requires otherwise, “plan” means a community energy resilience plan.

(c) “Local government” means a city, county, city and county, or California Native American tribe, as defined in Section 21073.

(d) “Public utility” means an electrical corporation, as defined in Section 218 of the Public Utilities Code, or a local publicly owned electric utility, as defined in Section 224.3 of the Public Utilities Code.

26451.

(a) Pursuant to this division, the commission shall develop and implement a grant program to award grants to local governments for the development of community energy resilience plans and for expediting local governments’ review of permits for distributed energy resources.

(b) Before awarding grants pursuant to this division, the commission shall do both of the following:

(1) Develop and adopt simple solicitation and evaluation procedures for applicants to submit a community energy resilience plan grant proposal to do both of the following:

(A) Develop a community energy resilience plan, including a prioritization of funds for critical facilities in low-income or disadvantaged communities that are most likely to experience disproportionate adverse impacts from more frequent future electrical outages, followed in priority by other critical facilities in the planning area.

(B) Develop a process for the expedited permit review of distributed energy resources by local governments.

(2) Conduct a minimum of two public meetings to consider public comment.

(c) The plan solicitation and evaluation procedures shall prioritize proposals for funding that would support equitable collaboration between public utilities, local governments, community-based organizations, and state agencies to yield plans that help achieve local energy resilience objectives and state renewable energy goals.

(d) A community energy resiliency plan shall be consistent with the city, county, or city and county general plan and other local government planning documents. The plan shall include provisions to facilitate the expedited local permitting of distributed energy resources.

(e) Grant funds awarded pursuant to this division may be used for plan development, including, but not limited to, all of the following activities:

(1) Hiring outside consultants or technical assistance providers to help with coordinating and drafting the plan.

(2) Identifying and coordinating with appropriate local government staff to draft the plan. A local government may hire a resilience manager to manage the plan development process and the implementation of projects identified in the plan.

(3) Convening and facilitating one or more community workshops enlisting local stakeholders, including, but not limited to, labor representatives, representatives from community-based organizations, community members, representatives from related technology vendors, local government staff in departments relating to emergency services, planning, and public works, disability rights advocates, and representatives from special districts, load-serving entities, school districts, environmental justice communities, communities of color, and other marginalized groups, to ensure that a diversity of perspectives and input is incorporated into the plan.

(4) Soliciting and using input from public utility operational and technical subject matter experts.

(5) Providing guidance and support to each local government awarded a grant to designate a diverse plan steering committee to ensure robust and meaningful public participation.

(f) A plan for which a local government is awarded a grant shall do all of the following:

(1) Identify critical facilities, including facilities that can serve as community resilience hubs to accommodate and provide basic services to people who have lost power to their homes.

(2) Identify locations and facilities where the construction of microgrids or other distributed energy resources could meet local resilience needs.

(3) Identify critical facilities that are in greatest need of backup energy generation and potential backup energy systems that may meet the needs of those facilities.

(4) Identify potential funding sources for implementation of projects included in the plan.

(g) Subject to any restrictions or limitations placed by outside funding programs, grants awarded to a local government pursuant to this division do not affect the local government’s eligibility to receive other incentives available from federal, state, or other local governments, public utilities, or any other source, or to leverage the grant funding awarded pursuant to this division with any other incentive.

(h) As a condition of being awarded a grant pursuant to this division, a local government shall submit its plan to the commission within six months of adopting its plan.

26452.

(a) The commission shall maintain a publicly available and searchable database of all local governments awarded a grant pursuant to this division. The database shall include relevant metrics to be determined by the commission.

(b) The commission shall develop and maintain, on its internet website, a publicly available library of community energy resilience planning tools compiled from best planning practices, and a directory of prequalified consultants with energy resilience planning expertise who may assist grant recipients in plan development.

(c) (1) The commission shall prepare an annual summary of statewide program expenditures and hire an independent, third-party evaluator to quantify and evaluate the effects of the grant program.

(2) Pursuant to Section 9795 of the Government Code, the commission shall annually submit the summary to the Legislature and post the summary on its internet website.