SB 1148: Electrical service: master meters.

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 require every residential unit in an apartment house or similar multiunit residential structure, condominium, or mobilehome park issued a building permit on or after July 1, 1982, with certain exceptions, to be individually metered for electrical and gas service.

This bill would add an exception from the requirement that every residential unit be individually metered for electrical service for a multifamily dwelling that includes a microgrid, site, as defined, that includes deployment of an electrical generation and energy storage facility and that meets specified requirements, including, among other things, that deployment of the electrical generation and energy storage facility is capable of providing backup electricity to the multifamily site using renewable energy resources, that the owner of the multifamily site does not increase rent in association with the costs of the deployments components or lease agreement, that each tenants electricity costs are less than what the tenant would have paid without the deployment of the microgrid, that the multifamily dwelling uses electricity generated from renewable energy resources, that all construction workers employed in the construction of the dwelling are paid at least the general prevailing rate of wages, as specified, and that the owner of the dwelling bills tenants using one of 3 specified methods. effective fully bundled rate would have been if billed by the relevant load-serving entity, and that the owner bills the nonresidential meters and residential tenants for electricity usage directly, as measured by private submeters installed by the owner for each individual unit at the site, as specified.

The bill would require the commission to authorize the use of a master meter in any building owned or operated by a local government. government, institution of higher education, private school, or religious institution.

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.

Because the bills provisions would be part of the act and a violation of a commission action implementing the 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.