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AB-2889 Wildfire mitigation plans: electrical infrastructure: hardening.(2021-2022)

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Date Published: 04/26/2022 09:00 PM
AB2889:v98#DOCUMENT

Amended  IN  Assembly  April 26, 2022

CALIFORNIA LEGISLATURE— 2021–2022 REGULAR SESSION

Assembly Bill
No. 2889

Introduced by Assembly Member Wicks

February 18, 2022

An act to amend Section 8386 of add Section 8386.7 to the Public Utilities Code, relating to electricity.


LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST


AB 2889, as amended, Wicks. Wildfire mitigation plans: electrical infrastructure: undergrounding. hardening.
Under existing law, the Public Utilities Commission has jurisdiction over public utilities, including electrical corporations. Under its existing authority, the commission requires certain electrical corporations to implement the California Overhead Conversion Program to provide financial assistance to local governments to facilitate projects that are in the public interest and replace overhead infrastructure with infrastructure in underground trenches. Existing law requires each electrical corporation to annually prepare and submit a wildfire mitigation plan to the Office of Energy Infrastructure Safety for review and approval. Existing law also requires the office to oversee and complete a review of each electrical corporation’s compliance with its plan. Existing law requires the commission to authorize the electrical corporation to establish a memorandum account to track costs incurred to implement the wildfire mitigation plan and requires the commission to consider whether the cost of implementing the wildfire mitigation plan is just and reasonable, as provided.
This bill would additionally require an each electrical corporation with more than 50% of its service territory located in a high fire-threat district to additionally include in its 2023 wildfire mitigation plan, to prepare and submit to the office a multiyear undergrounding wildfire mitigation plan, covering at least 7 years and not more than 10 years, as specified. that includes, among other things, a methodology for identifying and prioritizing circuits for mitigation based on wildfire risk reduction, public safety, and reliability benefits, and a comparison of undergrounding versus aboveground hardening of electrical equipment. The bill would authorize the commission to use the approved multiyear wildfire mitigation plan during its review of the electrical corporation’s risk assessment mitigation phase filings or in consideration of the electrical corporation’s annual wildfire mitigation plan filings in a general rate case proceeding, as specified.
Under existing law, a violation of any order, decision, rule, direction, demand, or requirement of the commission is a crime.
Because a violation of an order, decision, rule, direction, demand, or requirement of the commission implementing the above provisions would be a crime, this 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 a specified reason.
Vote: MAJORITY   Appropriation: NO   Fiscal Committee: YES   Local Program: YES  

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


SECTION 1.

 (a)The Legislature finds and declares all of the following:

(1)

(a) The effects of climate change are happening now and will significantly increase the likelihood and severity of wildfires in California. More than one quarter of the state, which includes millions of citizens, is now classified as a high fire-threat district, meaning there is a higher risk for destructive powerline fires that can ignite and spread rapidly.

(2)

(b) Catastrophic wildfires pose an immediate threat to communities and properties through throughout the state. Catastrophic wildfires cause loss of life, property damage, public health impacts, damage to local economies, and environmental degradation, including through significant emissions of greenhouse gases.

(3)

(c) The state has a substantial interest in wildfire prevention and in supporting the efforts of electrical corporations to reduce the risk of catastrophic wildfires, wildfires and operate in a safe and reliable manner, and access capital at reasonable costs. In particular, electrical corporations need capital to fund ongoing operations and make new investments to promote safety, reliability, and California’s clean energy mandates. California ratepayers benefit from low utility capital costs through reduced rates. manner.

(4)

(d) Preventing and mitigating property and infrastructure damage and injuries from catastrophic fires and other major events is much safer, better for local economies, and far less expensive than emergency repair and reconstruction.

(5)Migrating electrical infrastructure from overhead to underground (“undergrounding”) will reduce the risk of catastrophic wildfires caused by utility equipment and is therefore beneficial, especially in high fire-threat districts.

(6)Undergrounding will reduce certain operating and maintenance costs going forward, particularly with respect to vegetation management. Undergrounding will also improve reliability, including by reducing the need for public safety power shutoffs and enhanced powerline safety settings, and by protecting power lines from common causes of outages, such as weather and vegetation.

(7)A supportive regulatory and financial framework is necessary to reduce the costs of large-scale undergrounding. Establishing a predictable mechanism for approval, implementation, and funding of a multiyear undergrounding program will drive economies of scale that will reduce undergrounding costs, attract significant capital investment in undergrounding, spur undergrounding workforce development, and create a sustainable undergrounding equipment supply chain.

(b)It is the intent of the Legislature to promote undergrounding of electrical infrastructure as a mechanism that allows electrical corporations to reduce the risk of property and infrastructure damage and injuries from catastrophic wildfires.

SEC. 2.Section 8386 of the Public Utilities Code is amended to read:
8386.

(a)Each electrical corporation shall construct, maintain, and operate its electrical lines and equipment in a manner that will minimize the risk of catastrophic wildfire posed by those electrical lines and equipment.

(b)Each electrical corporation shall annually prepare and submit a wildfire mitigation plan to the Wildfire Safety Division for review and approval. In calendar year 2020, and thereafter, the plan shall cover at least a three-year period. The division shall establish a schedule for the submission of subsequent comprehensive wildfire mitigation plans, which may allow for the staggering of compliance periods for each electrical corporation. In its discretion, the division may allow the annual submissions to be updated to the last approved comprehensive wildfire mitigation plan; provided, that each electrical corporation shall submit a comprehensive wildfire mitigation plan at least once every three years.

(c)The wildfire mitigation plan shall include all of the following:

(1)An accounting of the responsibilities of persons responsible for executing the plan.

(2)The objectives of the plan.

(3)A description of the preventive strategies and programs to be adopted by the electrical corporation to minimize the risk of its electrical lines and equipment causing catastrophic wildfires, including consideration of dynamic climate change risks.

(4)A description of the metrics the electrical corporation plans to use to evaluate the plan’s performance and the assumptions that underlie the use of those metrics.

(5)A discussion of how the application of previously identified metrics to previous plan performances has informed the plan.

(6)A description of the electrical corporation’s protocols for disabling reclosers and deenergizing portions of the electrical distribution system that consider the associated impacts on public safety. As part of these protocols, each electrical corporation shall include protocols related to mitigating the public safety impacts of disabling reclosers and deenergizing portions of the electrical distribution system that consider the impacts on all of the following:

(A)Critical first responders.

(B)Health and communication infrastructure.

(C)Customers who receive medical baseline allowances pursuant to subdivision (c) of Section 739. The electrical corporation may deploy backup electrical resources or provide financial assistance for backup electrical resources to a customer receiving a medical baseline allowance for a customer who meets all of the following requirements:

(i)The customer relies on life-support equipment that operates on electricity to sustain life.

(ii)The customer demonstrates financial need, including through enrollment in the California Alternate Rates for Energy program continued pursuant to Section 739.1.

(iii)The customer is not eligible for backup electrical resources provided through medical services, medical insurance, or community resources.

(D)Subparagraph (C) shall not be construed as preventing an electrical corporation from deploying backup electrical resources or providing financial assistance for backup electrical resources under any other authority.

(7)A description of the electrical corporation’s appropriate and feasible procedures for notifying a customer who may be impacted by the deenergizing of electrical lines, including procedures for those customers receiving medical baseline allowances, as described in paragraph (6). The procedures shall direct notification to all public safety offices, critical first responders, health care facilities, and operators of telecommunications infrastructure with premises within the footprint of potential deenergization for a given event. The procedures shall comply with any orders of the commission regarding notifications of deenergization events.

(8)Identification of circuits that have frequently been deenergized pursuant to a deenergization event to mitigate the risk of wildfire and the measures taken, or planned to be taken, by the electrical corporation to reduce the need for, and impact of, future deenergization of those circuits, including, but not limited to, the estimated annual decline in circuit deenergization and deenergization impact on customers, and replacing, hardening, or undergrounding any portion of the circuit or of upstream transmission or distribution lines.

(9)Plans for vegetation management.

(10)Plans for inspections of the electrical corporation’s electrical infrastructure.

(11)A description of the electrical corporation’s protocols for the deenergization of the electrical corporation’s transmission infrastructure, for instances when the deenergization may impact customers who, or entities that, are dependent upon the infrastructure. The protocols shall comply with any order of the commission regarding deenergization events.

(12)A list that identifies, describes, and prioritizes all wildfire risks, and drivers for those risks, throughout the electrical corporation’s service territory, including all relevant wildfire risk and risk mitigation information that is part of the commission’s Safety Model Assessment Proceeding (A.15-05-002, et al.) and the Risk Assessment Mitigation Phase filings. The list shall include, but not be limited to, both of the following:

(A)Risks and risk drivers associated with design, construction, operations, and maintenance of the electrical corporation’s equipment and facilities.

(B)Particular risks and risk drivers associated with topographic and climatological risk factors throughout the different parts of the electrical corporation’s service territory.

(13)A description of how the plan accounts for the wildfire risk identified in the electrical corporation’s Risk Assessment Mitigation Phase filing.

(14)A description of the actions the electrical corporation will take to ensure its system will achieve the highest level of safety, reliability, and resiliency, and to ensure that its system is prepared for a major event, including hardening and modernizing its infrastructure with improved engineering, system design, standards, equipment, and facilities, such as undergrounding, insulating of distribution wires, and replacing poles.

(15)A description of where and how the electrical corporation considered undergrounding electrical distribution lines within those areas of its service territory identified to have the highest wildfire risk in a commission fire threat map.

(16)A showing that the electrical corporation has an adequately sized and trained workforce to promptly restore service after a major event, taking into account employees of other utilities pursuant to mutual aid agreements and employees of entities that have entered into contracts with the electrical corporation.

(17)Identification of any geographic area in the electrical corporation’s service territory that is a higher wildfire threat than is currently identified in a commission fire threat map, and where the commission should consider expanding the high fire threat district based on new information or changes in the environment.

(18)A methodology for identifying and presenting enterprisewide safety risk and wildfire-related risk that is consistent with the methodology used by other electrical corporations unless the commission determines otherwise.

(19)A description of how the plan is consistent with the electrical corporation’s disaster and emergency preparedness plan prepared pursuant to Section 768.6, including both of the following:

(A)Plans to prepare for, and to restore service after, a wildfire, including workforce mobilization and prepositioning equipment and employees.

(B)Plans for community outreach and public awareness before, during, and after a wildfire, including language notification in English, Spanish, and the top three primary languages used in the state other than English or Spanish, as determined by the commission based on the United States Census data.

(20)A statement of how the electrical corporation will restore service after a wildfire.

(21)Protocols for compliance with requirements adopted by the commission regarding activities to support customers during and after a wildfire, outage reporting, support for low-income customers, billing adjustments, deposit waivers, extended payment plans, suspension of disconnection and nonpayment fees, repair processing and timing, access to electrical corporation representatives, and emergency communications.

(22)A description of the processes and procedures the electrical corporation will use to do all of the following:

(A)Monitor and audit the implementation of the plan.

(B)Identify any deficiencies in the plan or the plan’s implementation and correct those deficiencies.

(C)Monitor and audit the effectiveness of electrical line and equipment inspections, including inspections performed by contractors, carried out under the plan and other applicable statutes and commission rules.

(23)Any other information that the Wildfire Safety Division may require.

(d)(1)An electrical corporation with more than 50 percent of its service territory located in a high fire-threat district shall include as part of its 2023 wildfire mitigation plan, a multiyear undergrounding plan, covering at least 7 years and not more than 10 years, that includes all of the following:

(A)A methodology for identifying and prioritizing circuits for undergrounding based on wildfire risk reduction, public safety, and reliability benefits.

(B)

A description of targets for achieving undergrounding of identified and prioritized circuits over the period of time covered by the undergrounding plan.

(C)

A utility and contractor workforce development plan and demonstration that the electrical corporation will have an adequately sized and trained workforce to perform planned undergrounding and subsequent inspection and maintenance activities.

(D)A description of how undergrounding will reduce the scope and extent of above-ground hardening of electrical equipment and vegetation management activities over time.

(2)An approved undergrounding plan shall remain in effect for the duration of the period covered by the plan.

(e)The Wildfire Safety Division shall post all wildfire mitigation plans and annual updates on the commission’s internet website before July 1, 2021, and on the office’s internet website beginning July 1, 2021, for no less than two months before the division’s or office’s decision regarding approval of the plan. The division or office shall accept comments on each plan from the public, other local and state agencies, and interested parties, and verify that the plan complies with all applicable rules, regulations, and standards, as appropriate.

SEC. 2.

 Section 8386.7 is added to the Public Utilities Code, to read:

8386.7.
 (a) Each electrical corporation shall prepare and submit to the office a multiyear wildfire mitigation plan, covering at least 7 years and not more than 10 years, that includes all of the following:
(1) A methodology for identifying and prioritizing circuits for mitigation based on wildfire risk reduction, public safety, and reliability benefits.
(2) A comparison of undergrounding versus aboveground hardening of electrical equipment and vegetation management activities, or any other alternative mitigation strategy, for those prioritized circuits identified pursuant to paragraph (1), evaluating the scope, extent, and risk reduction of each activity, separately and collectively, over the duration of the period covered in the plan. The comparison shall maximize for risk reduction but also include an analysis of the cost of each activity for reducing wildfire risk, separately and collectively, over the duration of the period covered in the plan.
(3) A description of targets for achieving risk mitigation activities of identified and prioritized circuits over the period of time covered by the plan.
(4) A utility and contractor workforce development plan and demonstration that the electrical corporation will have an adequately sized and trained workforce to perform planned mitigation activities and subsequent inspection and maintenance activities.
(5) An evaluation of project costs, projected economic benefits over the duration of the plan, and any cost containment assumptions including the economies of scale necessary to reduce mitigation costs and a sustainable supply chain.
(b) An approved multiyear wildfire mitigation plan shall remain in effect for the duration of the period covered by the plan.
(c) The commission may use the multiyear wildfire mitigation plan pursuant to this section during their review of an electrical corporation’s risk assessment mitigation phase filings or in consideration of an electrical corporation’s annual wildfire mitigation plan filings pursuant to Section 8386 in a general rate case proceeding, where the cost evaluations of the plan shall be considered.

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.