SB 488: California Renewables Portfolio Standard Program: bioenergy projects: community choice aggregators.

Existing law vests the Public Utilities Commission with regulatory authority over public utilities, including electrical corporations, while local publicly owned electric utilities are under the direction of their governing boards. Existing law requires electrical corporations, by December 1, 2023, to collectively procure, through financial commitments of 5 to 15 years, inclusive, their proportionate share of 125 megawatts of cumulative rated generating capacity from existing bioenergy projects that commenced operations before June 1, 2013, and requires a local publicly owned electric utility serving more than 100,000 customers to procure its proportionate share of 125 megawatts of cumulative rated generating capacity from bioenergy projects subject to terms of at least 5 years, but exempts from these requirements a local publicly owned electric utility that previously entered into 5-year financial commitments for its proportionate share under certain conditions.

This bill would authorize the cumulative rated generating capacity to be procured from bioenergy projects regardless of when the projects commence operations. The bill also would authorize a community choice aggregator to procure, subject to terms of at least 5 years, any portion of a local publicly owned electric utilitys required proportionate share of 125 megawatts of cumulative rated generating capacity from bioenergy projects that was not procured because of the exemption described above. The bill would require the commission to ensure that the costs of any contract procured by a community choice aggregator are recoverable, as specified.