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AB-2703 Electric vehicle charging stations: reliability standards: low-income and disadvantaged community financial assistance.(2021-2022)

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Date Published: 08/02/2022 09:00 PM
AB2703:v95#DOCUMENT

Amended  IN  Senate  August 02, 2022
Amended  IN  Senate  August 01, 2022
Amended  IN  Senate  June 13, 2022
Amended  IN  Assembly  April 18, 2022

CALIFORNIA LEGISLATURE— 2021–2022 REGULAR SESSION

Assembly Bill
No. 2703

Introduced by Assembly Member Muratsuchi
(Coauthors: Assembly Members Bennett, Bloom, and Luz Rivas)

February 18, 2022

An act to add Section 43872 to the Health and Safety Code, and to add Section 25234 to the Public Resources Code, relating to transportation.


LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST


AB 2703, as amended, Muratsuchi. Electric vehicle charging stations: reliability standards: low-income and disadvantaged community financial assistance.
Existing law requires the State Energy Resources Conservation and Development Commission (Energy Commission), working with the State Air Resources Board and the Public Utilities Commission, to prepare and update, as provided, a statewide assessment of the electric vehicle charging infrastructure needed to support the levels of electric vehicle adoption required for the state to meet its goals of putting at least 5,000,000 zero-emission vehicles on California roads by 2030, and of reducing emissions of greenhouse gases to 40% below 1990 levels by 2030.
Existing law establishes the Clean Transportation Program, administered by the Energy Commission, to provide funding to certain entities to develop and deploy innovative technologies that transform California’s fuel and vehicle types to help attain the state’s climate change policies.
This bill would require a person who receives state funding to deploy a publicly available electric vehicle charging station to agree, as a condition of receiving the funding, to operate the station in compliance with reliability and reporting standards that would be developed by the Energy Commission, as specified. The bill would require the Energy Commission and the Public Utilities Commission to develop excluded time criteria from which the recipient of the state funding is exempt from reliability standards compliance. The bill would require the Energy Commission to publish data on compliance with the reliability standards as part of the above-described assessment and to protect the confidential information of an entity subject to the reliability standards by anonymizing and aggregating the compliance data in the assessment. The bill would also require the Energy Commission, state board, upon appropriation by the Legislature, to develop a program program, in consultation with the California Integrated Travel Project, to provide financial assistance to residents of low-income and or disadvantaged community members communities, or both, to use electric vehicle charging stations, as specified.
Existing constitutional provisions require that a statute that limits the right of access to the meetings of public bodies or the writings of public officials and agencies be adopted with findings demonstrating the interest protected by the limitation and the need for protecting that interest.
This bill would make legislative findings to that effect.
Vote: MAJORITY   Appropriation: NO   Fiscal Committee: YES   Local Program: NO  

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


SECTION 1.

 Section 43872 is added to the Health and Safety Code, to read:

43872.
 (a) Upon appropriation by the Legislature, the commission state board, in consultation with the California Integrated Travel Project, shall develop a program to provide financial assistance to low-income and disadvantaged community members residents of low-income or disadvantaged communities, or both, to use electric vehicle charging stations.
(b) The program shall make financial assistance available through an open-loop, reloadable payment card that has both EMV chip and contactless capabilities and that is readily accessible to all residents of low-income and or disadvantaged community members communities, or both, in the state.
(c) The program shall not limit the choice of the person receiving the financial assistance with regard to the provider of the electric vehicle charging station.
(d) The commission shall establish eligibility criteria for the program that are similar to programs that provide financial assistance to low-income and disadvantaged communities for public transit and service from electrical corporations. shall be the same as the Clean Cars 4 All Program established pursuant to Section 44124.5.
(e) The commission state board shall establish the amount of financial assistance that is available to each individual eligible to receive assistance under the program.
(f) The state board shall develop and establish the program within 12 months of receiving an appropriation.
(g) The state board shall prepare on an annual basis a statewide assessment of the number of payment cards that have been issued under the program.
(h) The state board shall regularly seek data and input relating to payment methods from stakeholders including, but not limited to, the State Energy Resources Conservation and Development Commission, the Department of Transportation, the Public Utilities Commission, charging infrastructure company providers, local publicly owned utilities, state and local transit agencies, transit and equity advocacy groups, environmental groups, and financial technology companies.

(f)

(i) The commission state board may contract for professional services in implementing and administering this program.

(g)

(j) For purposes of this section, the following definitions apply:
(1) “California Integrated Travel Project” means the California Integrated Travel Project established within the Department of Transportation.

(1)

(2) “Charging station” means an electrical component assembly or cluster of component assemblies designed specifically to charge batteries within electric vehicles by permitting the transfer of electrical energy to a battery or other storage device in an electric vehicle.

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

(3) “Disadvantaged community” means a community identified pursuant to Section 39711.
(4) “Low-income community” has the same meaning as defined in Section 39713.

(3)

(5) “Open-loop” means redeemable upon presentation at multiple, unaffiliated merchants for goods or services.

SEC. 2.

 Section 25234 is added to the Public Resources Code, to read:

25234.
 (a) As a condition of receiving state funding to deploy a publicly available electric vehicle charging station, the recipient of the state funding shall agree to operate the station in compliance with the reliability and reporting standards developed by the commission pursuant to subdivision (b).
(b) For purposes of subdivision (a), the commission shall develop reliability and reporting standards for the operation of publicly available electric vehicle charging stations, including all both of the following:
(1) Uptime requirements.
(2) Operation and maintenance plan requirements.

(3)Outage time and downtime requirements.

(c) The commission may develop different standards based on technology type, including, but not limited to, direct current fast charging stations, Level 2 charging stations, charging stations in remote parts of the state, and off-grid charging stations.
(d) The commission and the Public Utilities Commission shall develop downtime exclusions excluded time criteria from compliance with reliability standards to which the recipient of the state funding is exempt from reliability standards compliance. Downtime exclusions Excluded time criteria may include, but are not limited to, all of the following:
(1) Upstream infrastructure failures such as electrical grid, cellular, and internet provider outages.
(2) Electric vehicle charging station damage as a result of an accident, vandalism, or improper use.
(3) Electric vehicle charging session failures due to vehicle inoperability problems.
(4) Preventative maintenance.
(5) Unforeseeable circumstances that would have been impossible to plan for using commercially reasonable methods.
(e) The commission may develop requirements and incentives for increasing compliance with the reliability standards.
(f) The commission shall publish data on compliance with the reliability standards as part of the assessment prepared pursuant to Section 25229. The commission shall protect the confidential information of an entity subject to this section, including, but not limited to, by anonymizing and aggregating the compliance data to ensure an individual entity’s data is not identifiable in the commission’s assessments prepared pursuant to Section 25229.
(g) The requirement established pursuant to subdivision (a) shall apply to all state agency funding that is provided to deploy a publicly available electric vehicle charging station installed on or after July 1, 2023.
(h) For purposes of this section, the following definitions apply:
(1) “Charging station” means an electrical component assembly or cluster of component assemblies designed specifically to charge batteries within electric vehicles by permitting the transfer of electrical energy to a battery or other storage device in an electric vehicle.

(2)“Downtime” means the inability of an electric vehicle charging station to deliver electricity to an electric vehicle that is caused by charging station hardware or software issues that the electric vehicle charging station provider could conceivably control themselves or through service contracts. “Downtime” does not include excluded time.

(3)“Excluded time” means a downtime exclusion developed by the commission pursuant to subdivision (d).

(4)“Outage time” means time an electric vehicle charging station is not operational and cannot dispense electricity based on when it is first reported.

(5)“Uptime” means the time an electric vehicle charging station’s hardware and software are both operational and available for use, or in use, and the electric vehicle charging station dispenses electricity at the intended power level. “Uptime” does not include outage time or downtime.

(2) “Excluded time” means the time not included when calculating uptime, as determined pursuant to the determination made by the commission and the Public Utilities Commission pursuant to subdivision (d).
(3) “Uptime” means the time a charging station’s hardware and software are both operational and the charging station dispenses electricity. “Uptime” does not include excluded time.

SEC. 3.

 The Legislature finds and declares that Section 2 of this act, which adds Section 25234 to the Public Resources Code, imposes a limitation on the public’s right of access to the meetings of public bodies or the writings of public officials and agencies within the meaning of Section 3 of Article I of the California Constitution. Pursuant to that constitutional provision, the Legislature makes the following findings to demonstrate the interest protected by this limitation and the need for protecting that interest:
In order to protect the confidential and proprietary information of an entity subject to Section 2 of this act, it is necessary that this act limit the public’s right of access to that information.