(1)The federal Public Utility Regulatory Policies Act of 1978 (PURPA) requires every state regulatory authority with respect to each electric utility, as defined, for which it has ratemaking authority, to determine whether to adopt certain federal standards if consistent with otherwise applicable state law. The federal standards include that no electric utility may recover from any person other than the shareholders or other owners of the utility, any direct or indirect expenditure by the electric utility for promotional or political advertising, as defined.

This bill would require the commission to institute a rulemaking proceeding by March 1, 2012, for the purpose of considering and adopting a code of conduct, associated rules, and enforcement procedures, to govern the conduct of an electrical corporation relative to the consideration, formation, and implementation of community choice aggregation programs and to implement the code of conduct, associated rules, and enforcement procedures by January 1, 2013. The bill would require the code of conduct, associated rules, and enforcement procedures to do the following: (A) ensure that an electrical corporation does not market against a community choice aggregation program, except through an independent marketing division that is funded exclusively by the electrical corporation’s shareholders, (B) limit the electrical corporation’s independent marketing division’s use of support services from the electrical corporation’s ratepayer funded divisions, (C) ensure that the electrical corporation’s independent marketing division does not have access to competitively sensitive information, (D) incorporate rules that the commission finds to be necessary or convenient in order to facilitate the development of community choice aggregation programs, to foster fair competition, and to protect against cross-subsidization paid by ratepayers, and (E) provide for other matters that the commission determines to be necessary or advisable to protect a ratepayer’s right to be free from forced speech or to implement that portion of PURPA that establishes the federal standard that no electric utility may recover from any person other than the shareholders or other owners of the utility, any direct or indirect expenditure by the electric utility for promotional or political advertising.

(2)Existing law authorizes a community choice aggregator to aggregate the electrical load of interested electricity consumers within its boundaries and requires a community choice aggregator to file an implementation plan with the commission. Existing law requires an electrical corporation to cooperate fully with any community choice aggregator that investigates, pursues, or implements community choice aggregation programs, including providing appropriate billing and electrical load data.

This bill would expand the entities that are permitted to undertake community choice aggregation. The bill would require that the electrical load data to be supplied by an electrical corporation as part of its duty to cooperate fully with any community choice aggregator, include electrical consumption data, as defined. The bill would, if the commission finds that an electrical corporation has violated the requirement to cooperate fully with a community choice aggregator, require that the commission consider the impact of the violation upon community choice aggregators. The bill would revise certain resource adequacy requirements as they relate to community choice aggregators. The bill would require that any program funded through a nonbypassable charge be administered on a nondiscriminatory basis so that the electric service customers of a community choice aggregator may participate in the program on an equal basis with the customers of an electrical corporation. The bill would require the commission to authorize a community choice aggregator to elect to become a 3rd-party administrator of funds collected from the aggregator’s electric service customer and collected through a nonbypassable charge authorized by the commission for cost-effective energy efficiency and conservation programs, except those funds collected for broader statewide and regional programs authorized by the commission. The bill would require the governing body of a community choice aggregator to adopt a policy that expressly prohibits the dissemination by the community choice aggregator of any statement relating to the community choice aggregator’s rates or terms and conditions of service that is untrue or misleading, and that is known, or that, by the exercise of reasonable care, should be known, to be untrue or misleading.

(3)The bill would provide that nothing in Division 1 of the Public Utilities Code, which includes the Public Utilities Act, prohibits payment pursuant to an agreement authorized by the National Labor Relations Act or federal Labor Management Cooperation Act of 1978 or restricts the use permitted by federal law of money paid pursuant to those acts.

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

Because this bill would expand the duties owed by an electrical corporation pursuant to the act, the bill would impose a state-mandated local program by creating a new crime or expanding the definition of an existing crime.

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.