Today's Law As Amended


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AB-2061 Transportation electrification: electric vehicle charging infrastructure.(2021-2022)



As Amends the Law Today


SECTION 1.
 The Legislature finds and declares all of the following:
(a) Increasing consumer confidence in electric vehicle convenience and accessibility depends on robust, publicly available charging stations.
(b) Despite immense state progress deploying publicly available charging stations, many Californians still lack access to them, including those in low-income, disadvantaged, and rural communities, those residing in multifamily housing, and some dense urban areas.
(c) Publicly available charging stations not only need to be widely available across all communities, but they also need to be highly reliable so that consumers can depend on them no matter where they are.
(d) The State Energy Resources Conservation and Development Commission (Energy Commission) is required to equitably deploy the charging stations it funds. However, the Energy Commission is not required to ensure equitable access to reliable charging stations.
(e) The state currently does not have a holistic understanding of the reliability of publicly funded charging stations, nor whether there are inequities to accessing reliable charging stations between communities.
(f) If the state is going to increase consumer confidence in electric vehicles and public charging stations, it must understand the performance of publicly funded infrastructure to assess if there are issues with reliability, and, if so, address these issues with policies and tools to ensure access to charging stations.

SEC. 2.

 Section 25231.5 is added to the Public Resources Code, to read:

25231.5.
 (a) (1) The commission, in consultation with the Public Utilities Commission, shall develop uptime recordkeeping and reporting standards for electric vehicle chargers and charging stations by January 1, 2024.
(2) The uptime recordkeeping and reporting standards shall do all of the following:
(A) Only apply to electric vehicle chargers and charging stations that received an incentive from a state agency or through a charge on ratepayers.
(B) Apply for a minimum of six years unless the commission decides a longer time span is more appropriate.
(C) Apply to electric vehicle chargers and charging stations installed on or after January 1, 2024.
(3) (A) The commission shall define “uptime” through a public workshop process and apply it to each electric vehicle charger and charging station and create a formula to calculate uptime to provide consistent, standardized reporting of information at least annually.
(B) When defining “uptime,” the commission shall do both of the following:
(i) Include the operability of both software and hardware.
(ii) Consider federal definitions to ensure consistency between standards.
(C) The commission shall determine what events that make a charging station inoperable constitute excluded time for purposes of developing the formula. In making this determination, the commission and Public Utilities Commission shall only consider events that are outside a charging station operator’s control. This may include issues related to the electrical grid, WiFi connectivity, cellular connectivity, and vandalism, as defined by the commission through a public workshop process.
(b) (1) The commission may consider additional reliability metrics, including, but not limited to, success rate to initiate a charging session, customer satisfaction, and the number, nature, or length of events that interrupt service.
(2) The commission, in consultation with the Public Utilities Commission, shall hold a public workshop to discuss and identify industry best practices and charger technology capabilities that are demonstrated to increase reliability. As a result of this workshop, the commission may incorporate these best practices and capabilities into its uptime recordkeeping and reporting standards.
(3) Uptime recordkeeping and reporting standards may vary by technology type, power levels, number of chargers per site, and site ownership. Factors may include whether chargers are networked, whether chargers are Level 1, Level 2, or direct current fast chargers, and whether chargers are all-inclusive mobile solar charging stations.
(4) Uptime recordkeeping and reporting standards shall not apply to charging stations installed at residential real property containing four or fewer dwelling units.
(5) The funding entity shall clearly disclose these reporting requirements to the funding recipient. If the funding recipient is an electric vehicle service provider or other third-party entity that is not the site host, the electric vehicle service provider or third-party entity shall provide a separate disclosure to the site host about the site host’s right to designate the service provider or third-party as the entity to report the data on behalf of the site host. The funding recipient shall verify receipt by signing the disclosure, to be confirmed by the funding entity.
(c) (1) Beginning January 1, 2025, the commission shall assess the uptime of charging station infrastructure, including, at a minimum, an assessment of equitable access to reliable charging stations in low-, moderate- and high-income communities.
(2) The commission shall update the assessment performed pursuant to this subdivision every two years.
(3) An individual or company supplying information or data to the commission pursuant to this section may request that the information or data be held in confidence by the commission pursuant to Section 25322.
(d) The commission, in consultation with the Public Utilities Commission, may adopt tools to increase charging station uptime, including, but not limited to, uptime requirements, operation and maintenance requirements, and may include incentives, including operation and maintenance incentives.
(e) This section does not prohibit or limit the commission’s or other state agencies’ ability under any other law, including, but not limited to, the authority to include reporting or reliability requirements as a condition of grants or other agreements or to adopt other charging station reporting standards.
(f) This section shall remain in effect only until January 1, 2035, and as of that date is repealed.