SB 886: California Technology Innovation and Ratepayer Protection Act.

Existing law vests the Public Utilities Commission with regulatory authority over public utilities, including electrical corporations. 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.

This bill, the California Technology Innovation and Ratepayer Protection Act, would require the commission, on or before July 1, 2027, to establish separate tariffs for the interconnection of the participating customer facilities and the provision of transmission, distribution, and optional generation services to participating customers, as specified. The bill would require the commission, as part of establishing the separate tariffs, to, at a minimum, evaluate the risks and benefits of the separate tariffs to nonparticipating customers, ensure that the separate tariffs prevent the creation of stranded costs for, or cost shifts to, nonparticipating customers, and, for unbundled customers, ensure that charges generally included in the generation component of the unbundled customers consolidated bill are assessed as a separate line item on their bill. The bill would require that the interconnection tariff, among other things, require a participating customer that submits an application for interconnection of a data center to an electrical corporation to disclose whether an application for the same data center has been submitted in other electrical corporation service territories or other jurisdictions and to disclose each instance in which an application for the same data center has been submitted, assign cost responsibility for all transmission facility upgrades triggered by a new facility interconnection to the applicable participating customer, and require an early termination fee to be assessed against a participating customer under specified circumstances. The bill would require, for the generation tariff, a participating customer to prefund a contract of at least 10 years in duration through the load-serving entity, as defined, for the costs of procurement necessary to serve the participating customer, as provided. The bill would also require each electrical corporation to publish and update maps showing locations where participating customers can interconnect without the need for significant, costly, and time-consuming transmission upgrades.

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

Because a violation of a commission action implementing 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.