AB 710: Local publicly owned electric utilities: advanced metering infrastructure.

Existing law vests the Public Utilities Commission with regulatory jurisdiction over public utilities, including electrical corporations, while local publicly owned electric utilities are under the direction of their governing boards. Existing law authorizes the commission to fix the rates and charges for every public utility and requires that those rates and charges be just and reasonable. prohibits a local publicly owned electric utility from sharing, disclosing, or otherwise making accessible to any third party, or selling, data about a customers electrical usage that is made available as part of an advanced metering infrastructure, except as specified. Existing law requires a local publicly owned electric utility that utilizes an advanced metering infrastructure that allows a customer to access their data to ensure that the customer has an option to access that data without being required to agree to the sharing of the customers personally identifiable information, including that data, with a third party.

This bill would require the commission to require each electrical corporation, and the governing board of each local publicly owned electric utility, on or before January 1, 2028, to analyze the feasibility of deploying advanced metering infrastructure to all customers. Based on that analysis, the bill would require each electrical corporation and the governing board of each local publicly owned electric utility, on or before January 1, 2029, to develop a plan for complete advanced metering infrastructure deployment, where feasible.

By imposing new duties on local publicly owned electric utilities, the bill would impose a state-mandated local program.