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AB-2070 Fire protection districts: electrical corporations and local publicly owned electric utilities: wildfire mitigation: notice requirements.(2021-2022)

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Date Published: 05/19/2022 02:00 PM
AB2070:v96#DOCUMENT

Amended  IN  Assembly  May 19, 2022
Amended  IN  Assembly  April 25, 2022
Amended  IN  Assembly  March 31, 2022

CALIFORNIA LEGISLATURE— 2021–2022 REGULAR SESSION

Assembly Bill
No. 2070

Introduced by Assembly Member Bauer-Kahan

February 14, 2022

An act to add Section 764.5 to the Public Utilities Code, relating to electricity.


LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST


AB 2070, as amended, Bauer-Kahan. Electrical Fire protection districts: electrical corporations and local publicly owned electric utilities: wildfire mitigation: notice requirements.
Under the Public Utilities Act, the Public Utilities Commission has regulatory authority over electrical corporations, while local publicly owned electric utilities are under the direction of their governing boards. Existing law requires each electrical corporation and local publicly owned electric utility to annually prepare and submit a wildfire mitigation plan, which includes a description of its procedures for notifying customers who may be impacted by the deenergizing of electrical lines. Existing law requires those procedures to direct notification to all affected public safety offices, critical first responders, health care facilities, and operators of telecommunications infrastructure. Existing law prohibits an electrical corporation from recovering a fine or penalty through a rate approved by the commission.
This bill would require authorize a fire protection district, as defined, to require an electrical corporation or local publicly owned electric utility to notify a fire protection district, as defined, the district at least 24 hours before performing scheduled, nonemergency hot work, deploying a safety and infrastructure protection team, or performing a prescribed or controlled burn within the district’s jurisdiction, except as provided. The bill would subject an electrical corporation that fails to provide sufficient that notice to a civil penalty of $500.
Under existing law, a violation of the Public Utilities Act or any order, decision, rule, direction, demand, or requirement of the commission is a crime.
Because the above provisions would be part of the act and a violation of a commission action implementing this bill’s requirements would be a crime, the bill would impose a state-mandated local program. Additionally, to the extent this bill would mandate that a local publicly owned electric utility, which is an entity of local government, provide a new program or higher level of service, the bill would impose 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 specified reasons.
Vote: MAJORITY   Appropriation: NO   Fiscal Committee: YES   Local Program: YES  

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


SECTION 1.

 Section 764.5 is added to the Public Utilities Code, to read:

764.5.
 (a) For purposes of this section, the following definitions apply:
(1) “Fire protection district” means any special district, or any other municipal or public corporation or district, that is authorized by law to provide fire protection and prevention services.
(2) “High fire risk area” means an area within a high, very high, or extreme fire threat zone as identified on the Department of Forestry and Fire Protection’s most recent Fire and Resource Assessment Program fire threat map or within a Tier 2 (elevated) or Tier 3 (extreme) zone as identified on the commission’s most recent fire-threat map.
(3) “Hot work” means work on an energized overhead electrical line greater than 15 kilovolts and cutting, welding, thermit welding, brazing, soldering, grinding, thermal spraying, thawing pipe, installation of torch-applied roof systems, or any other similar activity on electrical infrastructure.
(4) “Prescribed or controlled burn” has the same meaning as “prescribed burning” is defined in Section 4464 of the Public Resources Code.
(5) “Safety and infrastructure protection team” means personnel deployed to support work on overhead electrical infrastructure in a high fire risk area by an electrical corporation or local publicly owned electric utility.
(b) Except as specified in subdivision (c), A fire protection district may require an electrical corporation or local publicly owned electric utility to notify the fire protection district at least 24 hours before performing any of the following actions within a the fire protection district’s jurisdiction, an electrical corporation or local publicly owned electric utility shall notify the fire protection district of its intent to perform the action: except as specified in subdivision (c):
(1) The performance of scheduled, nonemergency hot work in a high fire risk area.
(2) The deployment of a safety and infrastructure protection team, or a similar fire suppression or emergency response crew, to a location in a high fire risk area where hot work will be performed.
(3) The performance of a prescribed or controlled burn.
(c) If an electrical corporation or local publicly owned electric utility cannot provide 24 hours’ notice pursuant to subdivision (b) due to unforeseen circumstances or an immediate need to perform critical or emergency repairs, the electrical corporation or local publicly owned electric utility shall notify the fire protection district at the earliest possible time.
(d) An electrical corporation or local publicly owned electric utility shall provide notice to a fire protection district pursuant to this section by both telephone and email.
(e) An electrical corporation or local publicly owned electric utility shall not be required to pay any fee for a fire district’s costs to preposition resources in response to a notice provided pursuant to this section.
(f) (1) An electrical corporation or local publicly owned electric utility that violates fails to provide notice as required pursuant to subdivision (b) shall be subject to a civil penalty of five hundred dollars ($500).
(2) Consistent with Section 748.1, an electrical corporation shall not recover from ratepayers any costs incurred pursuant to this subdivision. Those costs shall be paid solely by the shareholders of the electrical corporation.

SEC. 2.

 No reimbursement is required by this act pursuant to Section 6 of Article XIII B of the California Constitution because a local agency or school district has the authority to levy service charges, fees, or assessments sufficient to pay for the program or level of service mandated by this act or because 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.