AB 710: Electrical corporations: resiliency planning: microgrid projects.

Session Year: 2025-2026
House: Assembly
Latest Version Date: 2026-06-25

Current Status:

In Progress

(2026-06-29: Re-referred to Com. on APPR.)

Introduced

In Committee

First Chamber

In Committee

Second Chamber

Enacted

Version:

Existing law vests the Public Utilities Commission (PUC) with regulatory authority over public utilities, including electrical corporations. Existing law requires the PUC, in consultation with the State Energy Resources Conservation and Development Commission and the Independent System Operator, to take specified actions to facilitate the commercialization of microgrids for distribution customers of large electrical corporations, including developing microgrid service standards necessary to meet state and local permitting requirements and developing methods to reduce barriers for microgrid deployment without shifting costs between ratepayers.

This bill would require a large electrical corporation, upon request, to collaborate with local governments, tribal governments, or community choice aggregators within its service area to identify critical circuits and microgrid projects. support resiliency planning, as provided. The bill would require large electrical corporations to provide local governments, tribal governments, and community choice aggregators with access to data, including electrical distribution equipment data, transmission and distribution circuit data, grid hardening plans, and other information requested by those entities to ensure that they are able to plan and develop microgrid projects collaboratively with the large electrical corporations. If a local government, tribal government, or community choice aggregator requests information relating to individual customers, customers personal information, or customers locations, the bill would require the large electrical corporation to provide the information on a confidential basis, and would require the local government, tribal government, or community choice aggregator to not use the information for any other purpose than planning and developing microgrid projects. The bill would require a local government, tribal government, or community choice aggregator that requests and accepts data to maintain the confidentiality of any information designated as confidential by the large electrical corporation. as directed by the commission, to support resiliency planning by local governments and tribal governments to ensure local governments, tribal governments, and community choice aggregators are able to plan potential microgrid projects to support critical facilities. The bill would authorize the commission to require large electrical corporations to share this information in aggregated and anonymized form to protect customer privacy and electrical grid security.

The bill would also include findings that changes proposed by this bill address a matter of statewide concern rather than a municipal affair and, therefore, apply to all cities, including charter cities.Existing constitutional provisions require that a statute that limits the right of access to the meetings of public bodies or the writings of public officials and agencies be adopted with findings demonstrating the interest protected by the limitation and the need for protecting that interest.This bill would make legislative findings to that effect.

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

Because the violation of a PUC action implementing the bills requirements would be a crime, this 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.

Discussed in Hearing