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SB-1385 Electricity: multifamily housing local solar program.(2021-2022)



Current Version: 06/30/22 - Amended Assembly

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SB1385:v94#DOCUMENT

Amended  IN  Assembly  June 30, 2022
Amended  IN  Assembly  June 21, 2022
Amended  IN  Senate  May 19, 2022
Amended  IN  Senate  May 04, 2022
Amended  IN  Senate  March 24, 2022

CALIFORNIA LEGISLATURE— 2021–2022 REGULAR SESSION

Senate Bill
No. 1385

Introduced by Senator Cortese

February 18, 2022

An act to add and repeal Sections 399.34 and 2827.5 of the Public Utilities Code, relating to electricity.


LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST


SB 1385, as amended, Cortese. Electricity: multifamily housing local solar program.
Existing law vests the Public Utilities Commission with regulatory authority over public utilities, including electrical corporations. Under existing law, the Green Tariff Shared Renewables Program requires an electrical corporation with 100,000 or more customers in California to file with the commission an application requesting approval of a tariff to implement a program enabling ratepayers to participate directly in offsite electrical generation facilities that use eligible renewable energy resources. Existing law requires the commission, by June 30, 2017, to authorize, through the Multifamily Affordable Housing Solar Roofs Program, the awarding of monetary incentives for qualifying solar energy systems that are installed on qualified multifamily affordable housing properties through December 31, 2030.
This bill would require the commission, on or before January 1, 2024, to establish a new multifamily housing local solar program that would require each electrical corporation with more than 100,000 service connections in California to construct, or contract for the construction of, a solar and storage system on or near qualified multifamily housing, as specified. The bill would require those electrical corporations to export electricity from those solar and storage systems and use the resulting revenues to offset the costs of providing monthly bill credits to the participating low-income customers, pay the costs of constructing and operating the system, and pay the costs of administering the program, and would prohibit those electrical corporations from shifting those costs to, or recovering those costs from, nonparticipating customers. The bill would require the commission, when the installed capacity of the program reaches 500 megawatts or as of January 1, 2026, whichever occurs first, to evaluate the program, program and other voluntary customer renewable energy programs, and would require the commission to report to the Legislature the results of the evaluation on or before July 1, 2026, as provided. The bill would repeal these provisions on January 1, 2027.
Under existing law, a violation of an order, decision, rule, direction, demand, or requirement of the commission is a crime.
Because a violation of a commission action implementing this bill’s requirements would be a crime, 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 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 both of the following:
(1) California’s rooftop solar program has primarily benefited higher income people who live in single-family residences.
(2) Rooftop solar developers and the existing programs intended to bring the benefits of rooftop solar to lower income people who live in multifamily housing have not been sufficient to remedy the disparities in the rooftop solar market.

(3)The existing rooftop solar programs have resulted in lower income customers, who do not get the benefits of rooftop solar, subsidizing higher income customers, who get those benefits.

(4)The existing rooftop solar programs have not brought solar and storage to high fire threat districts that could benefit from the resilience provided by local solar and storage systems.

(5)Community choice aggregators already have the authority, and do not need any additional legislative authorization, to implement a program analogous to that provided for in this act because they have the authority to own and operate electric generation and storage facilities and to provide bill credits to their customers in amounts they determine.

(b) (1) It is the intent of the Legislature that this act bring the economic and resilience benefits of local solar and storage to lower income customers, customers in underserved communities, and customers in high fire threat districts, without shifting costs to nonparticipating customers.
(2) It is the intent of the Legislature that the program established pursuant to this act be implemented as quickly as reasonably possible over a 10-year period. possible.

SEC. 2.

 Section 399.34 is added to the Public Utilities Code, immediately following Section 399.33, to read:

399.34.
 (a) For purposes of calculating retail sales pursuant to this article, the retail sales of a large electrical corporation, as defined in Section 2827, shall be reduced by the number of kilowatthours credited to its customers participating in the multifamily housing local solar program established pursuant to Section 2827.5.
(b) This section shall remain in effect only until January 1, 2027, and as of that date is repealed.

SEC. 3.

 Section 2827.5 is added to the Public Utilities Code, to read:

2827.5.
 (a) As used in this section, the following definitions apply:
(1) “High fire threat district” means areas identified as Tier 2 (elevated) or Tier 3 (extreme) fire risk on the fire threat map maintained by the commission.
(2) “Large electrical corporation” has the same meaning as defined in Section 2827.
(3) “Low-income customer” means an individual or household who qualifies for one or more of the following programs:
(A) The California Alternate Rates for Energy (CARE) program described in Section 739.1.
(B) The Family Electric Rate Assistance (FERA) program described in Section 739.12.
(C) The CalFresh program established pursuant to Chapter 10 (commencing with Section 18900) of Part 6 of Division 9 of the Welfare and Institutions Code.
(D) The federal Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) (Chapter 51 (commencing with Section 2011) of Title 7 of the United States Code).
(E) The Low-income Heating Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP) (42 U.S.C. Sec. 8621).
(F) The federal Head Start Program (42 U.S.C. Sec. 9801 et seq.).
(4) “Proportionate share” means the share of the total program size allocated to each large electrical corporation based on that large electrical corporation’s share of the total bundled electrical load of all large electrical corporations in California.
(5) (A) “Qualified multifamily housing” means housing with four or more housing units that satisfies one of the following criteria:
(i) The housing predominantly houses low-income customers.
(ii) The housing is located in an underserved community.
(iii) The housing is located in a high fire threat district.
(B) “Qualified multifamily housing” does not include qualified multifamily affordable housing property, as defined in paragraph (3) of subdivision (a) of Section 2870.
(6) “Renewable energy credit” has the same meaning as defined in Section 399.12.
(7) “Solar and storage system” means a photovoltaic generating system with paired storage that is connected to the distribution system and sized to optimize the system’s ability to export electricity to the electrical grid at times of day when it is most valuable.
(8) “Total program size” means generating capacity of 1,500 megawatts.
(9) “Underserved community” has the same meaning as defined in Section 1601.
(b) On or before January 1, 2024, the commission shall establish a new multifamily housing local solar program consistent with all of the following requirements:
(1) The program shall be implemented as quickly as reasonably possible, but constructing one-half of the total program size shall not take longer than 5 years and constructing the total program size shall not take longer than 10 years. possible.
(2) Each large electrical corporation shall identify enough qualified multifamily housing to satisfy its proportionate share.
(3) Participation in the program by low-income customers living in qualified multifamily housing shall be on a voluntary opt-in basis.
(4) (A) Each large electrical corporation shall construct, or contract for the construction of, a solar and storage system on or near the qualified multifamily housing it identified pursuant to paragraph (2). The solar and storage system shall be sized to meet all, or part, of the participating low-income customers’ electrical requirements.
(B) The property owner of qualified multifamily housing shall not be required to participate in the program established by this section. A large electrical corporation that seeks to site a solar and storage system on property that it does not own shall enter into a mutually agreeable lease, easement, or other arrangement with the property owner.
(5) The solar and storage system shall be owned by the large electrical corporation and connected in front of the customers’ meters.
(6) (A) Each large electrical corporation shall export electricity from the solar and storage system and shall apply the revenue from the exports generated by the system through the sale of energy, capacity, and other services to provide offset the costs of providing monthly bill credits to participating low-income customers living in qualified multifamily housing, pay the costs of constructing and operating the system, considering any applicable tax credits, and pay the costs of administering the program. A
(B) If the costs described in subparagraph (A) exceed the revenue generated by the solar and storage system through the sale of energy, capacity, and other services, those costs in excess of that revenue shall be funded only through an appropriation by the Legislature.
(C) A large electrical corporation shall not shift these the costs described in subparagraph (A) to nonparticipating customers. customers or otherwise recover those costs from nonparticipating customers.

(B)(i)Costs for a solar and storage system developed under this program

(D) The costs described in subparagraph (A) shall be exclusively recovered through a portion of the revenue generated by the solar and storage system through the sale of energy, capacity, and other services. services, except as specified in subparagraph (B).

(ii)A large electrical corporation shall not obligate nonparticipating customers for cost recovery for a solar and storage system developed under this program.

(7) Each large electrical corporation shall site and operate the solar and storage systems to accomplish, to the greatest extent feasible, all of the following:
(A) Maximizing the bill credit available to participating low-income customers.
(B) Maximizing the economic and reliability benefits to the electrical system and all other customers.
(C) Providing resilience to participating customers and their communities.
(8) Each large electrical corporation shall retire all renewable energy credits from generation exported by the solar and storage system on behalf of the participating customers.
(c) Notwithstanding paragraph (1) of subdivision (a) of Section 1720 of the Labor Code, unless constructed by employees of a large electrical corporation, construction of each solar and storage system shall constitute a public works project for purposes of Article 2 (commencing with Section 1770) of Chapter 1 of Part 7 of Division 2 of the Labor Code.
(d) When the installed capacity of the program reaches 500 megawatts or as of January 1, 2026, whichever occurs first, the commission shall evaluate the program established by pursuant to this section. The commission shall include all of the following determinations in the evaluation:
(1) Whether nonparticipating customers are impacted by increased costs attributed to the program.
(2) Whether participating customers are impacted with unreasonable costs and benefits. costs.
(3) Whether participating customers have been adequately identified pursuant to paragraph (2) of subdivision (b).

(e)The commission may increase the total program size.

(e) (1) As part of the commission’s evaluation described in subdivision (d), the commission shall evaluate each of the following:
(A) Voluntary customer renewable energy programs to determine if those programs efficiently serve distinct customer groups, minimize duplicative offerings, and promote participation by low-income customers.
(B) The economic viability of solar and storage systems and the availability of bill credits for eligible low-income customers under voluntary customer renewable energy programs, including the program established pursuant to this section.
(C) The redundancy of voluntary customer renewable energy programs.
(D) Whether the program established pursuant to this section is likely to provide equitable access to distributed energy resource options commensurate with other voluntary customer renewable energy programs.
(2) If a duplicative voluntary customer renewable energy program is identified, or if a voluntary customer renewable energy program does not meet the criteria described in subparagraph (A) of paragraph (1), the commission shall authorize the termination or modification of that program. Any consolidation or elimination of those programs shall not prematurely terminate commitments made to eligible renewable energy resources or restrict eligible renewable energy resources from being available to serve customers for the duration of their contract.
(f) (1) On or before July 1, 2026, the commission shall report to the Legislature the results of the evaluation described in subdivision (d) and its justification for terminating, modifying, or retaining each voluntary customer renewable energy program.
(2) A report to be submitted pursuant to paragraph (1) shall be submitted in compliance with Section 9795 of the Government Code.

(f)

(g) This section shall remain in effect only until January 1, 2027, and as of that date is repealed.

SEC. 4.

 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.