California Assembly Bill AB66 Amended / Bill

 BILL NUMBER: AB 66AMENDED BILL TEXT AMENDED IN ASSEMBLY MAY 8, 2013 AMENDED IN ASSEMBLY MARCH 14, 2013 INTRODUCED BY Assembly Member Muratsuchi JANUARY 7, 2013 An act to add Section 2774.1 to the Public Utilities Code, relating to  the Public Utilities Commission.   electricity.  LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST AB 66, as amended, Muratsuchi.  Economic development.   Electricity: system reliability.   Existing law requires the Public Utilities Commission to establish priority among the types or categories of customers of an electrical corporation. In the event the electrical corporation experiences a shortage in capacity or capability in the generation, production, or transmission of electricity and is unable to obtain electricity from alternative sources to meet all of its customers' demand, existing law authorizes the commission to order a temporary reduction in service in an amount that reflects the priority established by the commission.   Under existing law, the Public Utilities Commission has regulatory authority over public utilities, including electrical corporations, as defined. The Public Utilities Act authorizes the commission to ascertain and fix just and reasonable standards, classifications, regulations, practices, measurements, or service to be furnished, imposed, observed, and followed by specified public utilities, including all electrical corporations. If the commission finds after a hearing that the rules, practices, equipment, appliances, facilities, or service of any public utility, or of the methods of manufacture, distribution, transmission, storage, or supply employed by the public utility, are unjust, unreasonable, unsafe, improper, inadequate, or insufficient, the act requires that the commission determine and, by order or rule, fix the rules, practices, equipment, appliances, facilities, service, or methods to be observed, furnished, constructed, enforced, or employed. 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.  This bill would require the commission to require an electrical corporation  to publish and maintain on the electrical corporation's Internet Web site a report describing local level   include in an annual reliability report, information on  system reliability  problems. The bill would require the report to be updated at least quarterly.  , including the frequency and duration of interruptions in services ranked by areas with both the most frequent and longest outages. The bill would require the commission to use the information to require remediation of reliability deficiencies if the report, or more than one report, identifies   repeated deficiencies in the same region.  Because a violation of any order, decision, rule, direction, demand, or requirement of the commission is a crime, this bill would impose a state-mandated local program  by expanding the definition of a crime  . 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. State-mandated local program: yes. THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA DO ENACT AS FOLLOWS: SECTION 1. Section 2774.1 is added to the Public Utilities Code, to read: 2774.1.  (a)    The commission shall require an electrical corporation  to publish and maintain on the electrical corporation's Internet Web site a report describing local level   include in an annual reliability report, information on  system reliability  problems  , including, but not limited to, the frequency and duration of interruptions in services ranked by areas with both the most frequent and longest outages. The  report shall be updated at least quarterly.   information shall be sufficiently aggregated to maintain electrical system security.   (b) The commission shall use the information contained in an electrical corporation's annual reliability report to require remediation of reliability deficiencies if the report, or more than one report, identifies repeated deficiencies in the same region. In requiring remediation, the commission may consider mitigating factors that may impede an electrical corporation from implementing required remediation, including local permitting matters or other events that may present higher priority safety or reliability issues.   (c) (1) The commission may order an electrical corporation to make more frequent trend analyses of regional service reliability and to make those analyses publicly available.   (2) The information made publicly available shall provide sufficient confidentiality for purposes of protecting electrical system security.   (3) The commission may make those analyses publicly available.   SEC. 2.   It is the intent of the Legislature in adding Section 2774.1 to the Public Utilities Code, that the required system reliability information be included in the annual report required by the Public Utilities Commission in Decision 96-09-045 (September 4, 1996), while preserving the discretion of the commission to modify an electrical corporation's reporting requirements.   SEC. 2.   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.