Existing law requires the Public Utilities Commission, in consultation with the State Energy Resources Conservation and Development Commission (Energy Commission) and the Independent System Operator, to take specified actions by December 1, 2020, to facilitate the commercialization of microgrids for distribution customers of large electrical corporations, including, among other actions, by developing methods to reduce barriers for microgrid deployment without shifting costs between ratepayers.
This bill would require the Energy Commission to conduct a study on the benefits of microgrids for local governments and communities and would require the Energy
Commission, on or before January 1, 2027, to submit a report on that study to the Legislature. The bill would repeal its provisions on January 1, 2031.
(1)Existing law vests the Public Utilities Commission (PUC) with regulatory authority over public utilities, including electrical corporations. Existing law defines electrical corporation for purposes of the Public Utilities Act to include every corporation or person owning, controlling, operating, or managing any electric plant for compensation within this state, except as provided.This bill would revise and recast the definition of electrical corporation to, among other things, eliminate certain existing exceptions to the definition of electrical corporation, thereby expanding the scope of that term and the entities over which the PUC has regulatory authority. The bill would additionally exempt from that definition a corporation
or person employing one or more distributed energy resources, as defined, that has the capacity to be coupled with one or more energy storage systems for the generation of electricity primarily for specified uses. The bill would also exempt from the definition of electrical corporation a microgrid, as defined, that primarily serves the included load of the microgrid, as provided. The bill would also make various conforming changes.(2)Existing law requires the PUC, in consultation with the State Energy Resources Conservation and Development Commission (Energy Commission) and the Independent System Operator, to take specified actions by December 1, 2020, to facilitate the commercialization of microgrids for distribution customers of large electrical corporations.The bill would require the PUC to retain jurisdiction over the interconnection of a microgrid to the distribution system of a large
electrical corporation, as defined. The bill would also authorize the Energy Commission to develop safety standards for microgrids and to issue optional guidelines for the governance and oversight of microgrids to local governments, as provided.(3)Under existing law, a violation of the Public Utilities Act or any order, decision, rule, direction, demand, or requirement of the PUC is a crime.Because certain of the above provisions would be part of the act and a violation of a PUC action implementing this bills 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.
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