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<ns0:Id>20250SB__088697AMD</ns0:Id>
<ns0:VersionNum>97</ns0:VersionNum>
<ns0:History>
<ns0:Action>
<ns0:ActionText>INTRODUCED</ns0:ActionText>
<ns0:ActionDate>2026-01-13</ns0:ActionDate>
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<ns0:ActionText>AMENDED_SENATE</ns0:ActionText>
<ns0:ActionDate>2026-03-05</ns0:ActionDate>
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<ns0:ActionText>AMENDED_SENATE</ns0:ActionText>
<ns0:ActionDate>2026-03-25</ns0:ActionDate>
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<ns0:LegislativeInfo>
<ns0:SessionYear>2025</ns0:SessionYear>
<ns0:SessionNum>0</ns0:SessionNum>
<ns0:MeasureType>SB</ns0:MeasureType>
<ns0:MeasureNum>886</ns0:MeasureNum>
<ns0:MeasureState>AMD</ns0:MeasureState>
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<ns0:AuthorText authorType="LEAD_AUTHOR">Introduced by Senator Padilla</ns0:AuthorText>
<ns0:AuthorText authorType="COAUTHOR_ORIGINATING">(Coauthors: Senators Arreguín, McNerney, Weber Pierson, and Wiener)</ns0:AuthorText>
<ns0:Authors>
<ns0:Legislator>
<ns0:Contribution>LEAD_AUTHOR</ns0:Contribution>
<ns0:House>SENATE</ns0:House>
<ns0:Name>Padilla</ns0:Name>
</ns0:Legislator>
<ns0:Legislator>
<ns0:Contribution>COAUTHOR</ns0:Contribution>
<ns0:House>SENATE</ns0:House>
<ns0:Name>Arreguín</ns0:Name>
</ns0:Legislator>
<ns0:Legislator>
<ns0:Contribution>COAUTHOR</ns0:Contribution>
<ns0:House>SENATE</ns0:House>
<ns0:Name>McNerney</ns0:Name>
</ns0:Legislator>
<ns0:Legislator>
<ns0:Contribution>COAUTHOR</ns0:Contribution>
<ns0:House>SENATE</ns0:House>
<ns0:Name>Weber Pierson</ns0:Name>
</ns0:Legislator>
<ns0:Legislator>
<ns0:Contribution>COAUTHOR</ns0:Contribution>
<ns0:House>SENATE</ns0:House>
<ns0:Name>Wiener</ns0:Name>
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<ns0:Title> An act to add Chapter 14 (commencing with Section 8540) to Division 4.1 of the Public Utilities Code, relating to electricity. </ns0:Title>
<ns0:RelatingClause>electricity</ns0:RelatingClause>
<ns0:GeneralSubject>
<ns0:Subject>California Technology Innovation and Ratepayer Protection Act.</ns0:Subject>
</ns0:GeneralSubject>
<ns0:DigestText>
<html:p>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 authorizes the commission to fix the rates and charges for every public utility and requires that those rates and charges be just and reasonable.</html:p>
<html:p>This bill, the California Technology Innovation and Ratepayer Protection Act, would require the commission, on or before July 1, 2027, to establish a rate structure that includes an electrical corporation tariff for the interconnection of the participating
customer facilities and the provision of transmission, distribution, and generation services to participating customers, as specified. The bill would require the commission, as part of establishing the electrical corporation tariff, to, at a minimum, establish eligibility criteria for participating customer, evaluate the risks and benefits of the electrical corporation tariff to nonparticipating customers, ensure that the electrical corporation tariff prevents 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 their bills are assessed separately from charges generally included in the transmission and distribution components of their bills. The bill would require that the electrical corporation tariff require a
participating customer that submits an application for interconnection of a facility to an electrical corporation to disclose whether an application for the same facility has been submitted in other electrical corporation service territories or other jurisdictions and to disclose each instance in which an application for the same facility has been submitted. The bill would also require that the electrical corporation tariff, among other things, 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 a participating customer to prefund a contract of at least 15 years in duration through the electrical corporation, community choice aggregator, or electric service provider for the installation of new, incremental, zero-carbon energy resources, and to participate in a new demand response program authorized by the commission, 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.</html:p>
<html:p>This bill would encourage each local publicly owned electric utility to develop a tariff that is similar to the electrical corporation tariff described above and ensures, among other things, that costs are not shifted from a
customer that is not subject to that tariff to a customer that is subject to that tariff, and that the costs of investments in infrastructure made by a
customer that is subject to that tariff are not recoverable from other customers that are not subject to that tariff.</html:p>
<html:p>Under existing law, a violation of any order, decision, rule, direction, demand, or requirement of the commission is a crime.</html:p>
<html:p>Because a violation of a commission action implementing this bill’s requirements would be a crime, the bill would impose a state-mandated local program.</html:p>
<html:p>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.</html:p>
<html:p>This bill would provide that no reimbursement is required by this act for a specified reason.</html:p>
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<ns0:DigestKey>
<ns0:VoteRequired>MAJORITY</ns0:VoteRequired>
<ns0:Appropriation>NO</ns0:Appropriation>
<ns0:FiscalCommittee>YES</ns0:FiscalCommittee>
<ns0:LocalProgram>YES</ns0:LocalProgram>
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<ns0:Election>NO</ns0:Election>
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<ns0:Bill id="bill">
<ns0:Preamble>The people of the State of California do enact as follows:</ns0:Preamble>
<ns0:BillSection id="id_D15D267C-AF03-463C-99A9-5A69CA762B51">
<ns0:Num>SECTION 1.</ns0:Num>
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Chapter 14 (commencing with Section 8540) is added to Division 4.1 of the
<ns0:DocName>Public Utilities Code</ns0:DocName>
, to read:
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<ns0:Fragment>
<ns0:LawHeading id="id_98B19A91-21AD-4E7B-90BC-A6CB7E008177" type="CHAPTER">
<ns0:Num>14.</ns0:Num>
<ns0:LawHeadingVersion id="id_857C2C97-8C83-4F98-915C-35712DCF0DD9">
<ns0:LawHeadingText>California Technology Innovation and Ratepayer Protection Act</ns0:LawHeadingText>
</ns0:LawHeadingVersion>
<ns0:LawSection id="id_497D9B28-020C-4B40-A3EB-94D8489F2BEC">
<ns0:Num>8540.</ns0:Num>
<ns0:LawSectionVersion id="id_A9E9DA68-977C-4F14-8BD6-F3C57FBD841D">
<ns0:Content>
<html:p>This chapter shall be known, and may be cited, as the California Technology Innovation and Ratepayer Protection Act.</html:p>
</ns0:Content>
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<ns0:LawSection id="id_93DAD3E0-8B83-42FC-97BE-8160F9CC37E7">
<ns0:Num>8541.</ns0:Num>
<ns0:LawSectionVersion id="id_C201CC3E-F7D0-4FFF-A936-E467BD2E6F42">
<ns0:Content>
<html:p>For purposes of this chapter, all of the following definitions apply:</html:p>
<html:p>
(a)
<html:span class="EnSpace"/>
“Data center” means a facility that primarily contains electronic equipment used to process, store, and transmit digital information, which may be a free-standing structure or a facility within a larger structure, that uses environmental control equipment to maintain the proper conditions for the operation of electronic equipment.
</html:p>
<html:p>
(b)
<html:span class="EnSpace"/>
“Electrical corporation” has the same meaning as defined in Section 218.
</html:p>
<html:p>
(c)
<html:span class="EnSpace"/>
“Electrical corporation tariff” means an electrical corporation tariff included as part of the rate structure established pursuant subdivision
(a) of Section 8542.
</html:p>
<html:p>
(d)
<html:span class="EnSpace"/>
“Facility” means a physical property, a plant, a building, a structure, a source, or stationary equipment, located on one or more contiguous or adjacent properties in actual physical contact or separated solely by a public roadway or public right-of-way and under common ownership or common control.
</html:p>
<html:p>
(e)
<html:span class="EnSpace"/>
“Local publicly owned electric utility” has the same meaning as defined in Section 224.3.
</html:p>
<html:p>
(f)
<html:span class="EnSpace"/>
“Nonparticipating customer” means a customer who does not receive electrical service pursuant to an electrical corporation tariff.
</html:p>
<html:p>
(g)
<html:span class="EnSpace"/>
(1)
<html:span class="EnSpace"/>
“Participating customer” means a customer who receives electrical service pursuant to an electrical corporation tariff.
</html:p>
<html:p>
(2)
<html:span class="EnSpace"/>
For the purpose of the interconnection components of
an electrical corporation tariff, “participating customer” means a data center taking transmission level electrical service with an estimated peak demand of at least 25 megawatts. For the other components of an electrical corporation tariff, the commission shall determine an appropriate minimum peak demand for participating customers, not to exceed 25 megawatts, that considers the extent to which facility load has a material impact on electrical corporation costs.
</html:p>
<html:p>
(3)
<html:span class="EnSpace"/>
“Participating customer” does not include a publicly funded research facility, public safety facility, national security facility, publicly owned facility, and other utility facility, including, but not limited to, an asset of a facilities-based telecommunications provider.
</html:p>
<html:p>
(h)
<html:span class="EnSpace"/>
“Unbundled customer” means a customer receiving the generation component of their electrical service from an entity that is different from the entity providing the transmission and distribution components of the customer’s electrical service.
</html:p>
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</ns0:LawSection>
<ns0:LawSection id="id_8C217E70-0B5C-4254-AFB8-EFE013D3FE55">
<ns0:Num>8542.</ns0:Num>
<ns0:LawSectionVersion id="id_FFE08454-4A4F-4DEA-9406-056CC4841062">
<ns0:Content>
<html:p>
(a)
<html:span class="EnSpace"/>
On or before July 1, 2027, the commission shall establish a rate structure that includes an electrical corporation tariff for the interconnection of participating customer facilities and the provision of transmission, distribution, and generation services to participating customers.
</html:p>
<html:p>
(b)
<html:span class="EnSpace"/>
The commission, as part of establishing
an electrical corporation tariff, shall do, at a minimum, all of the following:
</html:p>
<html:p>
(1)
<html:span class="EnSpace"/>
Establish eligibility criteria for participating customers. The interconnection components of an electrical corporation tariff shall only apply to a facility for which a new transmission interconnection agreement is established after the establishment of the rate structure pursuant to this chapter by the commission or after a later date specified by the commission.
</html:p>
<html:p>
(2)
<html:span class="EnSpace"/>
Evaluate the risks and benefits of
an electrical corporation tariff to nonparticipating customers.
</html:p>
<html:p>
(3)
<html:span class="EnSpace"/>
Ensure that an electrical corporation tariff prevents the creation of stranded costs for, or cost shifts to, nonparticipating customers.
</html:p>
<html:p>
(4)
<html:span class="EnSpace"/>
For an unbundled customer, ensure that charges generally included in the generation component of the customer’s bill are assessed separately from charges generally included in the transmission and distribution components of the customer’s bill.
</html:p>
<html:p>
(c)
<html:span class="EnSpace"/>
An electrical corporation tariff shall incorporate all of the following criteria:
</html:p>
<html:p>
(1)
<html:span class="EnSpace"/>
For customers taking generation services from the electrical corporation, the electrical corporation tariff shall assign participating customers any unique wholesale energy costs, including ancillary and reliability services costs attributable to rapid fluctuations in demand by the participating customer.
</html:p>
<html:p>
(2)
<html:span class="EnSpace"/>
The electrical corporation tariff shall include a reasonable share of the costs relating to wildfire mitigation, wildfire liability, electrification and environmental programs, and other societal cost obligations typically collected from distribution-level ratepayers.
</html:p>
<html:p>
(3)
<html:span class="EnSpace"/>
(A)
<html:span class="EnSpace"/>
A participating customer shall prefund a contract of at least 15 years in duration through an electrical corporation, community choice aggregator, or electric service provider for the installation of new, incremental, zero-carbon energy resources sufficient to do both of the following:
</html:p>
<html:p>
(i)
<html:span class="EnSpace"/>
Provide at least 50 percent of the participating customer’s hourly energy needs.
</html:p>
<html:p>
(ii)
<html:span class="EnSpace"/>
Provide dispatchable reliability assets within the electrical corporation’s, community choice aggregator’s, or electric service provider’s service territory.
</html:p>
<html:p>
(B)
<html:span class="EnSpace"/>
A participating customer may meet the requirement to prefund the installation of those
energy resources by installing comparable energy resources behind its meter. The use of this onsite generation to meet the criteria of this paragraph shall be limited to zero-emission resources.
</html:p>
<html:p>
(4)
<html:span class="EnSpace"/>
A participating customer shall participate in a new demand response program authorized by the commission that does not result in any net costs to nonparticipating customer and supports load shifting, reliability, resource adequacy, and greenhouse gas emission reduction objectives.
</html:p>
<html:p>
(5)
<html:span class="EnSpace"/>
The interconnection provisions of the electrical corporation tariff shall do all
of the following:
</html:p>
<html:p>
(A)
<html:span class="EnSpace"/>
Require a
participating customer that submits an application for interconnection of a facility to an electrical corporation to disclose whether an application for the same facility has been submitted in other electrical corporation service territories or other jurisdictions and to disclose each instance in which an application for the same facility has been submitted.
</html:p>
<html:p>
(B)
<html:span class="EnSpace"/>
Assign cost responsibility for all transmission facility upgrades triggered by a new facility interconnection to the applicable participating customer. To the extent permitted under federal law, these costs should include shared transmission grid network upgrades needed to accommodate the interconnection of the participating customer’s facility or
increase the flow of electricity across the electrical grid.
</html:p>
<html:p>
(C)
<html:span class="EnSpace"/>
Allow a participating customer to receive refunds of a portion of its initial nominal dollar contributions to interconnection costs only to the extent that actual annual net revenues cover the costs of energization, the costs of providing electrical service, and other costs allocated by the commission to the participating customer. On an annual basis, the refund shall not be more than 75 percent of the annual net revenue received by the electrical corporation from the participating customer. This limitation may delay the timing of
the full recovery of refunds by the participating customer.
</html:p>
<html:p>
(D)
<html:span class="EnSpace"/>
For a participating customer, require an early termination fee to be assessed against a participating customer that departs the electrical system within 15 years of the initial interconnection of the facility or fails to achieve full load ramp up. The early termination fee should not be less than the revenue gap associated with the originally projected demand and energy consumption of the facility over the minimum
15-year term.
</html:p>
<html:p>
(6)
<html:span class="EnSpace"/>
A participating customer shall certify to the commission that its facility meets the requirements of subdivisions (a) and (b) of Section 25545.3.3 of, and subdivisions (a) to (e), inclusive, of Section 25545.3.5 of, the Public Resources Code, notwithstanding the definition of “covered project” in Section 25545.3 of the Public Resources
Code.
</html:p>
<html:p>
(d)
<html:span class="EnSpace"/>
Each electrical corporation shall be required to publish and update maps showing locations where
participating customers can interconnect without the need for significant, costly, and time-consuming transmission upgrades.
</html:p>
<html:p>
(e)
<html:span class="EnSpace"/>
This section does not modify the limits on direct transactions established pursuant to Section 365.1.
</html:p>
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</ns0:LawSection>
<ns0:LawSection id="id_3D7A2FA1-2A0C-40EF-B23E-75A6F5643F16">
<ns0:Num>8543.</ns0:Num>
<ns0:LawSectionVersion id="id_42293201-E79E-46D5-BD70-67472394EDE7">
<ns0:Content>
<html:p>A local publicly owned electric utility is encouraged, before connecting a facility to the electrical grid, to develop a tariff that is similar to an electrical corporation tariff and ensures all of the following:</html:p>
<html:p>
(a)
<html:span class="EnSpace"/>
The costs are not shifted from
a customer that is subject to the tariff of a local publicly owned electric utility to a customer that is not subject to that tariff.
</html:p>
<html:p>
(b)
<html:span class="EnSpace"/>
The costs of investments in infrastructure made by a customer that is subject to the tariff of a local publicly owned electric utility are not recoverable from other
customers that are not subject to that tariff.
</html:p>
<html:p>
(c)
<html:span class="EnSpace"/>
Each customer that is subject to the tariff of a local publicly owned electric utility certifies to the local publicly owned electric utility that its facility meets the requirements of subdivisions (a) and (b) of Section 25545.3.3 of, and subdivisions (a) to (e), inclusive, of Section 25545.3.5 of, the Public Resources Code, notwithstanding the definition of “covered project” in Section 25545.3 of the Public Resources Code.
</html:p>
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<ns0:BillSection id="id_4697C063-79E2-4EF7-AEA3-38E19B844231">
<ns0:Num>SEC. 2.</ns0:Num>
<ns0:Content>
<html:p>
No reimbursement is required by this act pursuant to Section 6 of Article XIII
<html:span class="ThinSpace"/>
B of the California Constitution because the only costs that may be incurred by a local agency or school district will be incurred because this act creates a new crime or infraction, eliminates a crime or infraction, or changes the penalty for a crime or infraction, within the meaning of Section 17556 of the Government Code, or changes the definition of a crime within the meaning of Section 6 of Article XIII
<html:span class="ThinSpace"/>
B of the California Constitution.
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