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 Independent System Operator (ISO), to establish resource adequacy requirements for all electrical corporations, electric service providers, and community choice aggregators, as provided, and requires that the resource adequacy program achieve certain objectives.

This bill would require that the resource adequacy program also achieve the objectives of recognizing a reliability contribution for energy-only resources that reflects the value of those resources in supporting grid reliability, maximizing the timely development and interconnection of certain energy resources, and promoting increased use of electrical grid infrastructure, as provided.

Existing law requires each electrical corporation, electric service provider, and community choice aggregator to maintain physical generating capacity and electrical demand response adequate to meet its load requirements, and requires that the generating capacity or electrical demand response be deliverable to locations and at times as may be necessary to maintain electrical service system reliability, local area reliability, and flexibility.

This bill would instead require each electrical corporation, electric service provider, and community choice aggregator to maintain physical generating capacity, energy storage, and electrical demand response adequate to meet its load requirements in order to maintain electrical service system reliability, local area reliability, and flexibility.

Existing law requires the PUC, in consultation with the State Energy Resources Conservation and Development Commission (Energy Commission), to provide transmission-focused guidance to the ISO about resource portfolios of expected future renewable energy resources and zero-carbon resources, as specified, to allow the ISO to identify and approve transmission facilities needed to interconnect resources and reliably serve the needs of load centers. In providing that guidance, existing law requires the PUC and the Energy Commission to annually provide projections to support the Independent System Operator’s planning and approvals in its annual transmission planning process, as provided.

This bill would require the PUC and Energy Commission, as part of those projections, to also identify cost-effective opportunities to increase the reliability contribution or mitigate congestion of planned or existing energy-only resources through transmission capacity expansions.

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