SB 59: Battery electric vehicles: bidirectional capability.

Existing law requires the State Air Resources Board to adopt and implement motor vehicle emission standards, in-use performance standards, and motor vehicle fuel specifications for the control of air contaminants and sources of air pollution that the state board has found necessary, cost effective, and technologically feasible. The California Global Warming Solutions Act of 2006 establishes the state board as the state agency responsible for monitoring and regulating sources emitting greenhouse gases and requires the state board to adopt rules and regulations to achieve the maximum technologically feasible and cost-effective greenhouse gas emission reductions from those sources.

This bill would authorize the State Energy Resources Conservation and Development Commission (Energy Commission), in consultation with the state board and the Public Utilities Commission, to require any weight class of battery electric vehicle to be bidirectional capable, as defined, if it determines there is a sufficiently compelling beneficial bidirectional-capable use case to the battery electric vehicle operator and electrical grid. The bill would require the Energy Commission, in its analysis, to consider vehicle readiness and duty cycles required of vehicles operated by essential service providers. The bill would define various terms for this purpose and authorize the state board and Energy Commission to each periodically update the definitions of specified terms to ensure that the definitions align with current technologies in bidirectional charging and account for ongoing innovation.