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. Existing law requires each electrical corporation to identify a separate rate component to fund certain programs that enhance system reliability and provide in-state benefits. Existing law requires that the rate component be a nonbypassable element of the local distribution service.

This bill would require the commission to require a large electrical corporation, if the commission approves the large electrical corporation’s request to upgrade its smart meter infrastructure and related information management and billing systems relative to infrastructure in place on January 1, 2026, to offer all its customers at least one optional dynamic rate tariff no later than when the upgraded smart meter infrastructure is anticipated to be placed into service, as specified. The bill would require the commission to ensure, in reviewing a request of a large electrical corporation to recover costs associated with upgrading its smart meter infrastructure and related information management and billing systems, that specified conditions are met. The bill would require the commission to ensure, among other things, the large electrical corporation makes the same time-varying distribution rates available to both bundled customers and unbundled customers located in the same geographic area, as specified.

Under existing law, a violation of the Public Utilities Act or an order, decision, rule, direction, demand, or requirement of the commission is a crime.