SB677:v98#DOCUMENTBill Start
Amended
IN
Senate
March 10, 2021
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CALIFORNIA LEGISLATURE—
2021–2022 REGULAR SESSION
Senate Bill
No. 677
Introduced by Senator Hueso
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February 19, 2021 |
An act to amend Section 2774.1 of of, and to add Section 2774.4 to, the Public Utilities Code, relating to electricity.
LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST
SB 677, as amended, Hueso.
Electricity: service reliability: reporting.
Existing law requires the Public Utilities Commission to require electrical corporations to include in their annual reliability reports certain information on the reliability of service to end use customers.
This bill would require each electrical corporation to implement a plan to address climate change-related impacts to its respective electric plant, as defined, including prioritizing the replacement of equipment identified as most vulnerable to extreme heat events and other extreme weather events due to climate change. The bill would additionally require an electrical corporation to include a plan in its annual reliability report that addresses expected impacts, as specified, to the electrical distribution system from climate change, including impacts to
transformers, substations, and electrical lines, that may result in a loss of electrical service of over an unspecified number of hours. The bill would require each electrical corporation to describe what investments have been made to better prepare its equipment for the impacts from climate change.
Under existing law, a violation of any order, decision, rule, direction, demand, or requirement of the commission is a crime.
Because the bill’s requirements would be enforced by the commission and a violation of an order, decision, rule, direction, demand, or requirement of the commission would be a crime, this bill would impose a state-mandated local program by creating new crimes.
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.
This bill would make nonsubstantive changes to that provision.
Digest Key
Vote:
MAJORITY
Appropriation:
NO
Fiscal Committee:
NOYES
Local Program:
NOYES
Bill Text
The people of the State of California do enact as follows:
SECTION 1.
Section 2774.1 of the Public Utilities Code is amended to read:2774.1.
(a) (1) The commission shall require an electrical corporation to include in an annual reliability report, required pursuant to Decision 96-09-045, as amended, or a decision that supersedes Decision 96-09-045, information on the reliability of service to end use customers that includes, but is not limited to, identification of the frequency and duration of interruptions in services. This information shall indicate areas with both the most frequent and longest outages, using local areas determined by the commission. The commission, in consultation with the electrical corporation, shall ensure that the geographical boundaries of local areas do not split up circuits for reporting purposes, if the electrical corporation
aggregates data by circuits. The information shall be sufficiently aggregated to both maintain electrical system security, and be of use and relevance to affected customers of the electrical corporation.(2) The commission shall determine the local areas for the purposes of paragraph (1).
(3) The electrical corporation shall conspicuously post on its internet website the annual report required pursuant to Decision 96-09-045, as amended, or a decision that supersedes Decision 96-09-045.
(b) (1) The commission shall use the information contained in an electrical corporation’s annual reliability report to require cost-effective remediation of reliability deficiencies if the report, or more than one
report, identifies repeated deficiencies in the same local area as determined by the commission pursuant to paragraph (1) of subdivision (a). In requiring cost-effective remediation, the commission shall consult with the electrical corporation and consider mitigating factors that may impede an electrical corporation from implementing required cost-effective remediation, including, but not limited to, local permitting matters or other events or conditions or public policy considerations that may present higher priority safety or reliability issues.
(2) The commission may suspend the requirements of paragraph (1) if the commission finds that expenditures by the electrical corporation to comply with that paragraph are not justified or that the remediation measures undertaken by the electrical corporation are not effective at improving
reliability.
(c) (1) The commission may order an electrical corporation to make more frequent trend analyses of local area service reliability and to make those analyses publicly available.
(2) The information made publicly available shall provide sufficient confidentiality for purposes of protecting electrical system security.
(3) The commission may make those analyses publicly available.
(d) The commission shall, in an existing or new proceeding, require each electrical corporation to implement a plan to address climate change-related impacts to its respective electric plant, including
prioritizing the replacement of equipment identified as most vulnerable to extreme heat events and other extreme weather events due to climate change.
SEC. 2.
Section 2774.4 is added to the Public Utilities Code, to read:2774.4.
(a) (1) In addition to the requirements in Section 2774.1, the commission shall require each electrical corporation to develop a plan to address expected impacts to the electrical distribution system from climate change, including impacts to transformers, substations, and electrical lines, that may result in a loss of electrical service of over ____ hours.(2) As part of its plan, each electrical corporation shall identify the circuits and equipment most at risk from extreme weather events, including, but not limited to, extreme heat events, extreme storms that may cause flooding, sea level rise, and snow in areas not prone to snow.
(3) In identifying the
vulnerable equipment, an electrical corporation shall note vulnerability due to design standards that may not apply to the new weather events, equipment vintage, and the inability to repair equipment quickly.
(4) The commission shall require each electrical corporation to describe what investments have been made to better prepare the electrical corporation’s equipment for the impacts from climate change.
(b) Each electrical corporation shall include the information required by subdivision (a) in its annual reliability report to the commission, pursuant to Section 2774.1.
SEC. 3.
No reimbursement is required by this act pursuant to Section 6 of Article XIII B of the California Constitution because the only costs that may be incurred by a local agency or school district will be incurred because this act creates a new crime or infraction, eliminates a crime or infraction, or changes the penalty for a crime or infraction, within the meaning of Section 17556 of the Government Code, or changes the definition of a crime within the meaning of Section 6 of Article XIII B of the California Constitution.