Under existing law, the Public Utilities Commission has regulatory authority over public utilities, including electrical corporations, as defined, while local publicly owned electric utilities, as defined, are under the direction of their governing board. Existing law, relative to private energy producers, requires every electric utility, as defined, to develop a standard contract or tariff providing for net energy metering, as defined, and to make this contract or tariff available to eligible customer generators, as defined, upon request for generation by a renewable electrical generation facility, as defined. An electric utility, upon request, is required to make the contract or tariff for net energy metering available to eligible customer-generators on a first-come-first-served basis until the time that the total rated generating capacity used by eligible customer-generators exceeds 5% of the electric utility’s aggregate customer peak demand. With one exception, existing law requires that each net energy metering contract or tariff be identical with respect to rate structure, all retail rate components, and any monthly charges, to the contract or tariff to which the same customer would be assigned if the customer did not use a renewable electrical generation facility, except that eligible customer-generators shall not be assessed standby charges on the electrical generating capacity or the kilowatthour production of a renewable electrical generation facility.

This bill would prohibit the commission from adopting any new demand charge, standby charge, customer charge, minimum monthly charge, interconnection charge, or other fixed charge that applies only to customers receiving electric service pursuant to a net energy metering contract or tariff.