AB 463: Electricity: prioritization of service: public transit vehicles.

Existing law vests the Public Utilities Commission with regulatory authority over public utilities, including electrical corporations and gas corporations. Existing law requires the commission to establish priorities among the types or categories of customers of every electrical corporation and every gas corporation, and among the uses of electricity or gas by those customers, to determine which of those customers and uses provide the most important public benefits and serve the greatest public need, and to categorize all other customers and uses in order of descending priority based on these standards. Existing law requires the commission, in establishing those priorities, to consider, among other things, the economic, social, and other effects of a temporary discontinuance in electrical or gas service to certain customers or for certain uses, as specified. If an electrical or gas corporation experiences a shortage of capacity or capability and is unable to meet all demands by its customers, existing law requires the commission to order that service be temporarily reduced by an amount that reflects the established priorities for the duration of the shortage.

This bill would require the commission, in establishing those priorities, to also consider the economic, social equity, and mobility impacts of a temporary discontinuance in electrical service to the customers that rely on electrical service to operate public transit vehicles.

Existing law requires each electrical corporation to annually prepare and submit a wildfire mitigation plan to the Wildfire Safety Division for review and approval. The California Energy Infrastructure Safety Act establishes the Office of Energy Infrastructure Safety within the Natural Resources Agency, and provides that, on and after July 1, 2021, the Office of Energy Infrastructure Safety is the successor to, and is vested with, all of the duties, powers, and responsibilities of the Wildfire Safety Division of the commission. Existing law requires that each wildfire mitigation plan include, among other things, the electrical corporations protocols for disabling reclosers and deenergizing portions of the electrical distribution system that consider the associated impacts on public safety, including related to mitigating those public safety impacts on critical first responders, health and communication infrastructure, and customers who receive medical baseline allowances.

This bill would require that those protocols also include protocols related to mitigating those public safety impacts on public transit vehicle charging infrastructure.

Under existing law, a violation of any order, decision, rule, direction, demand, or requirement of the commission is a crime.

Because the violation of a commission action implementing some of 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.