BILL NUMBER: SB 585CHAPTERED BILL TEXT CHAPTER 312 FILED WITH SECRETARY OF STATE SEPTEMBER 22, 2011 APPROVED BY GOVERNOR SEPTEMBER 22, 2011 PASSED THE SENATE SEPTEMBER 1, 2011 PASSED THE ASSEMBLY AUGUST 25, 2011 AMENDED IN ASSEMBLY AUGUST 18, 2011 AMENDED IN ASSEMBLY JULY 5, 2011 AMENDED IN SENATE MAY 31, 2011 AMENDED IN SENATE MARCH 29, 2011 INTRODUCED BY Senator Kehoe FEBRUARY 17, 2011 An act to amend Section 2851 of, and to add Section 2851.1 to, the Public Utilities Code, relating to solar energy, and declaring the urgency thereof, to take effect immediately. LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST SB 585, Kehoe. Energy: solar energy systems: funding. Under existing law, the Public Utilities Commission (PUC) has regulatory authority over public utilities, including electrical corporations. Decisions of the PUC adopted the California Solar Initiative. Existing law requires the PUC, in implementing the California Solar Initiative, to ensure that the total cost over the duration of the program does not exceed $3,350,800,000, and imposes monetary limits on programs funded by charges collected from customers of the state's 3 largest electrical corporations and on programs adopted, implemented, and financed by charges collected by local publicly owned electrical utilities. This bill would increase the cost limit to $3,550,800,000, and make a corresponding increase in a monetary limit imposed on programs funded by charges collected from customers of the state's 3 largest electrical corporations. The bill would require the commission, before collecting additional ratepayer funds to fund certain program shortfalls, to first allocate interest accumulated from customer collections and, for the remainder of the shortfall, to increase collections from customers of the state's 3 largest electrical corporations for specified programs. The bill, except as specified, would set the discount rate for interest at 4%. The bill would require the commission, within 90 days of the enactment of the bill, to establish and impose project cost caps for residential and nonresidential projects under the California Solar Initiative, based on national and state installed cost data. This bill would declare that it is to take effect immediately as an urgency statute. THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA DO ENACT AS FOLLOWS: SECTION 1. Section 2851 of the Public Utilities Code is amended to read: 2851. (a) In implementing the California Solar Initiative, the commission shall do all of the following: (1) The commission shall authorize the award of monetary incentives for up to the first megawatt of alternating current generated by solar energy systems that meet the eligibility criteria established by the State Energy Resources Conservation and Development Commission pursuant to Chapter 8.8 (commencing with Section 25780) of Division 15 of the Public Resources Code. The commission shall determine the eligibility of a solar energy system, as defined in Section 25781 of the Public Resources Code, to receive monetary incentives until the time the State Energy Resources Conservation and Development Commission establishes eligibility criteria pursuant to Section 25782. Monetary incentives shall not be awarded for solar energy systems that do not meet the eligibility criteria. The incentive level authorized by the commission shall decline each year following implementation of the California Solar Initiative, at a rate of no less than an average of 7 percent per year, and shall be zero as of December 31, 2016. The commission shall adopt and publish a schedule of declining incentive levels no less than 30 days in advance of the first decline in incentive levels. The commission may develop incentives based upon the output of electricity from the system, provided those incentives are consistent with the declining incentive levels of this paragraph and the incentives apply to only the first megawatt of electricity generated by the system. (2) The commission shall adopt a performance-based incentive program so that by January 1, 2008, 100 percent of incentives for solar energy systems of 100 kilowatts or greater and at least 50 percent of incentives for solar energy systems of 30 kilowatts or greater are earned based on the actual electrical output of the solar energy systems. The commission shall encourage, and may require, performance-based incentives for solar energy systems of less than 30 kilowatts. Performance-based incentives shall decline at a rate of no less than an average of 7 percent per year. In developing the performance-based incentives, the commission may: (A) Apply performance-based incentives only to customer classes designated by the commission. (B) Design the performance-based incentives so that customers may receive a higher level of incentives than under incentives based on installed electrical capacity. (C) Develop financing options that help offset the installation costs of the solar energy system, provided that this financing is ultimately repaid in full by the consumer or through the application of the performance-based rebates. (3) By January 1, 2008, the commission, in consultation with the State Energy Resources Conservation and Development Commission, shall require reasonable and cost-effective energy efficiency improvements in existing buildings as a condition of providing incentives for eligible solar energy systems, with appropriate exemptions or limitations to accommodate the limited financial resources of low-income residential housing. (4) Notwithstanding subdivision (g) of Section 2827, the commission may develop a time-variant tariff that creates the maximum incentive for ratepayers to install solar energy systems so that the system's peak electricity production coincides with California's peak electricity demands and that ensures that ratepayers receive due value for their contribution to the purchase of solar energy systems and customers with solar energy systems continue to have an incentive to use electricity efficiently. In developing the time-variant tariff, the commission may exclude customers participating in the tariff from the rate cap for residential customers for existing baseline quantities or usage by those customers of up to 130 percent of existing baseline quantities, as required by Section 80110 of the Water Code. Nothing in this paragraph authorizes the commission to require time-variant pricing for ratepayers without a solar energy system. (b) Notwithstanding subdivision (a), in implementing the California Solar Initiative, the commission may authorize the award of monetary incentives for solar thermal and solar water heating devices, in a total amount up to one hundred million eight hundred thousand dollars ($100,800,000). (c) (1) In implementing the California Solar Initiative, the commission shall not allocate more than fifty million dollars ($50,000,000) to research, development, and demonstration that explores solar technologies and other distributed generation technologies that employ or could employ solar energy for generation or storage of electricity or to offset natural gas usage. Any program that allocates additional moneys to research, development, and demonstration shall be developed in collaboration with the Energy Commission to ensure there is no duplication of efforts, and adopted by the commission through a rulemaking or other appropriate public proceeding. Any grant awarded by the commission for research, development, and demonstration shall be approved by the full commission at a public meeting. This subdivision does not prohibit the commission from continuing to allocate moneys to research, development, and demonstration pursuant to the self-generation incentive program for distributed generation resources originally established pursuant to Chapter 329 of the Statutes of 2000, as modified pursuant to Section 379.6. (2) The Legislature finds and declares that a program that provides a stable source of monetary incentives for eligible solar energy systems will encourage private investment sufficient to make solar technologies cost effective. (3) On or before June 30, 2009, and by June 30th of every year thereafter, the commission shall submit to the Legislature an assessment of the success of the California Solar Initiative program. That assessment shall include the number of residential and commercial sites that have installed solar thermal devices for which an award was made pursuant to subdivision (b) and the dollar value of the award, the number of residential and commercial sites that have installed solar energy systems, the electrical generating capacity of the installed solar energy systems, the cost of the program, total electrical system benefits, including the effect on electrical service rates, environmental benefits, how the program affects the operation and reliability of the electrical grid, how the program has affected peak demand for electricity, the progress made toward reaching the goals of the program, whether the program is on schedule to meet the program goals, and recommendations for improving the program to meet its goals. If the commission allocates additional moneys to research, development, and demonstration that explores solar technologies and other distributed generation technologies pursuant to paragraph (1), the commission shall include in the assessment submitted to the Legislature, a description of the program, a summary of each award made or project funded pursuant to the program, including the intended purposes to be achieved by the particular award or project, and the results of each award or project. (d) (1) The commission shall not impose any charge upon the consumption of natural gas, or upon natural gas ratepayers, to fund the California Solar Initiative. (2) Notwithstanding any other provision of law, any charge imposed to fund the program adopted and implemented pursuant to this section shall be imposed upon all customers not participating in the California Alternate Rates for Energy (CARE) or family electric rate assistance (FERA) programs, including those residential customers subject to the rate cap required by Section 80110 of the Water Code for existing baseline quantities or usage up to 130 percent of existing baseline quantities of electricity. (3) The costs of the program adopted and implemented pursuant to this section may not be recovered from customers participating in the California Alternate Rates for Energy or CARE program established pursuant to Section 739.1, except to the extent that program costs are recovered out of the nonbypassable system benefits charge authorized pursuant to Section 399.8. (e) In implementing the California Solar Initiative, the commission shall ensure that the total cost over the duration of the program does not exceed three billion five hundred fifty million eight hundred thousand dollars ($3,550,800,000). The financial components of the California Solar Initiative shall consist of the following: (1) Programs under the supervision of the commission funded by charges collected from customers of San Diego Gas and Electric Company, Southern California Edison Company, and Pacific Gas and Electric Company. The total cost over the duration of these programs shall not exceed two billion three hundred sixty-six million eight hundred thousand dollars ($2,366,800,000) and includes moneys collected directly into a tracking account for support of the California Solar Initiative and moneys collected into other accounts that are used to further the goals of the California Solar Initiative. (2) Programs adopted, implemented, and financed in the amount of seven hundred eighty-four million dollars ($784,000,000), by charges collected by local publicly owned electric utilities pursuant to Section 387.5. Nothing in this subdivision shall give the commission power and jurisdiction with respect to a local publicly owned electric utility or its customers. (3) Programs for the installation of solar energy systems on new construction, administered by the State Energy Resources Conservation and Development Commission pursuant to Chapter 8.6 (commencing with Section 25740) of Division 15 of the Public Resources Code, and funded by nonbypassable charges in the amount of four hundred million dollars ($400,000,000), collected from customers of San Diego Gas and Electric Company, Southern California Edison Company, and Pacific Gas and Electric Company pursuant to Article 15 (commencing with Section 399). SEC. 2. Section 2851.1 is added to the Public Utilities Code, to read: 2851.1. (a) As used in this section,"discount rate" means a financial mechanism that provides a given amount of interest as an offset to the loss of the time value of money on solar projects that receive performance-based incentives under Section 2851. (b) Before collecting additional ratepayer funds to fund program shortfalls identified for incentive step levels 8, 9, and 10 for nonresidential solar photovoltaic systems, the commission shall first allocate interest accumulated from customer collections and, for the remainder of the shortfall, increase collections from customers of San Diego Gas and Electric Company, Southern California Edison Company, and Pacific Gas and Electric Company for programs described in paragraph (1) of subdivision (e) of Section 2851. (c) The discount rate shall be set at 4 percent, unless the commission determines the rate should be reduced. SEC. 3. Within 90 days of the enactment of this act, the Public Utilities Commission shall establish and impose project cost caps for residential and nonresidential projects under the California Solar Initiative, based on national and state installed cost data. SEC. 4. This act is an urgency statute necessary for the immediate preservation of the public peace, health, or safety within the meaning of Article IV of the Constitution and shall go into immediate effect. The facts constituting the necessity are: In order to make additional funding available as soon as possible for the nonresidential incentives provided under the California Solar Initiative, which needs the funds before 2012 to remain solvent, it is necessary for this act to take effect immediately.