Renewable energy resources: renewable feed-in tariff set aside for most impacted and disadvantaged communities.

Under existing law, the Public Utilities Commission (PUC) has regulatory authority over public utilities, including electrical corporations, as defined, while local publicly owned electric utilities, as defined, are under the direction of their governing board. Existing law requires every electrical corporation to file with the commission a standard tariff for electricity generated by an electric generation facility, as defined, that qualifies for the tariff, is owned and operated by a retail customer of the electrical corporation, and is located within the service territory of, and developed to sell electricity to, the electrical corporation. Existing law requires that, in order to qualify for the tariff, the electric generation facility: (1) have an effective capacity of not more than 3 megawatts, subject to the authority of the PUC to reduce this megawatt limitation, (2) be interconnected and operate in parallel with the electric transmission and distribution grid, (3) be strategically located and interconnected to the electric transmission system in a manner that optimizes the deliverability of electricity generated at the facility to load centers, and (4) meet the definition of an eligible renewable energy resource under the California Renewables Portfolio Standard Program. Existing decisions of the PUC implementing these requirements refer to these tariff requirements as a renewable feed-in tariff. Existing law requires a local publicly owned electric utility that sells electricity at retail to 75,000 or more customers to adopt and implement a tariff for electricity purchased from an electric generation facility meeting certain size, deliverability, and interconnection requirements and to consider certain factors. Under existing law, the obligation of an electrical corporation or local publicly owned electric utility to make a renewable feed-in tariff available to additional electric generation facilities terminates once the generating capacity of the electric generation facilities receiving service pursuant to the utility's renewable feed-in tariff reaching its proportionate share of a statewide cap of 750 megawatts of cumulative rated generating capacity served pursuant to renewable feed-in tariffs. This bill would require the commission, by August 1, 2014, to add an additional 125 megawatts of cumulative rated generation capacity, split proportionately between the state's electrical corporations, to the proportion of the statewide cap of 750 megawatts that is applicable to electric generation facilities that are eligible for service pursuant to renewable feed-in tariffs. The bill would require a local publicly owned electric utility that sells electricity at retail to 75,000 or more customers, by August 1, 2014, to add an additional 65 megawatts of cumulative rated generation capacity, split proportionately between those utilities, to the proportion of the statewide cap of 750 megawatts that is applicable to electric generation facilities that are eligible for service pursuant to renewable feed-in tariffs. The bill would limit eligibility for the additional generation capacity to electric generation facilities with a rated capacity under 500 kilowatts that are located in the state's most impacted and disadvantaged communities, as defined. Existing law provides that the electricity purchased from an electric generation facility counts toward meeting the local publicly owned electric utility's renewables portfolio standard annual procurement targets. This bill would move this requirement to that portion of the Public Utilities Code concerning the California Renewables Portfolio Standard Program and would require that the tariff be adopted by July 1, 2013. The bill would make other technical and nonsubstantive changes. Existing law requires that the governing board of a local publicly owned utility ensure that the adopted tariff reflects the value of every kilowatthour of electricity generated on a time-of-delivery basis. This bill would additionally require the board to consider avoided costs for distribution and transmission system upgrades, whether the facility generates electricity in a manner that offsets peak demand on the distribution circuit, and all current and anticipated environmental and greenhouse gases reduction compliance costs. 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 the provisions of this bill would be a part of the act and because a violation of an order or decision of the commission implementing its requirements would be a crime, the bill would impose a state-mandated local program by expanding the application of a crime. Because the bill would impose various duties upon local publicly owned electric utilities, the bill would impose a state-mandated local program. 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 specified reasons.