The Public Utilities Act vests the Public Utilities Commission with regulatory authority over public utilities, including electrical corporations. The act defines “electrical corporation” to include every corporation or person owning, controlling, operating, or managing any electric plant for compensation within this state, except as specified. The act 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 would revise the definition of “electrical corporation” to exclude a corporation or person employing certain solar or wind generating technology if electricity is transmitted exclusively and directly through private electrical lines to a single facility owned by a different corporation or person that uses the electricity only for new load, not for departing load, and for an electrolytic hydrogen production facility, as defined, or a facility using the electricity to provide industrial process heat, or both.

This bill would require private electric lines located on property other than the property on which a single electrolytic hydrogen production facility or industrial process heat facility or solar or wind generating technology is located to be subject to all applicable General Orders, as determined by the commission, except as provided, and would require corporations or persons employing private electric lines that are subject to those requirements to file wildfire mitigation plans if any part of the private electric lines are located in high fire threat districts, as specified.

This bill would require the commission, on or before July 1, 2027, in a new or existing proceeding, to evaluate and, if just and reasonable, establish a tariff for qualified self-generation projects with a generating capacity exceeding 80,000 kilowatts. The bill would require the commission to structure the tariff so that an electrical corporation serves as an intermediary between the electrical generation and energy storage facilities providing the electricity and the qualified self-generation project. The bill would require the commission to structure rates for qualified self-generation projects to administer the purchase and resale of the electricity from the electrical generation and energy storage facilities solely at cost, as specified. The bill would also require a customer to meet various requirements to be considered a qualified self-generation project, including, among other requirements, that the customer uses electricity from specified sources and the electricity is transmitted exclusively and directly through private electric lines to the customer’s facility. The bill would require any cost associated with the tariff to be paid solely by participating customers such that nonparticipating customers bear no additional costs, and would require private electric lines located on property other than the property on which a single electrolytic hydrogen production facility or industrial process heat facility or solar or wind generating technology is located to be subject to all applicable General Orders, as determined by the commission, except as provided. The bill would also require customer load supplied to qualified self-generation projects under the tariff to be excluded for purposes of calculating procurement requirements for electrical corporations, as specified.

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