AB 1945: Municipal utility districts: prepay option: termination of service. - California

03/16/26 - Amended Assembly → 04/16/26 - Amended Assembly · 9 edits · Apr 16, 2026

MAJOR

The April 16 amendment substantially strengthens consumer protections for customers using the prepay option at small electrical districts. It adds specific timing requirements for low-balance alerts (10 days and 24 hours before suspension), requires districts to offer arrearage payment plans before enrolling customers in prepay, mandates a separate fund for prepay revenues, requires refunds of unexpended balances within 10 business days, and adds protections for elderly, medically vulnerable, and dependent adult customers. It also carves out the 24-hour phone contact notice from the electronic delivery option.

Scope change

The bill's scope remains the same (districts serving fewer than 100,000 customers), but the prepay option is now subject to significantly more conditions and consumer protections before it can be offered. The electronic notice provision was narrowed to exclude the 24-hour pre-termination contact requirement.

REQUIREMENT

Low-balance alerts under the prepay option now must be sent at least 10 days before forecasted service suspension AND again 24 hours before, based on the district's best estimates of usage. Previously there was no specific timing requirement.

New condition requires that before a customer enters the prepay option, if they are eligible for an arrearage payment plan, the district must offer them the opportunity to participate in that plan first.

New condition requires the district to refund any unexpended balance from a customer's account within 10 business days after the customer terminates service and the district has withdrawn payment for the final bill.

The prepay option now requires the district to provide customers with all information related to mechanisms and policies for returning to standard billing, plus information on any differences in consumer protection rules between prepay and standard billing.

FISCAL

New condition requires the district to deposit all revenue collected from prepay customers into a separate fund, and amounts associated with electrical service not yet provided cannot be transferred or expended from that fund.

ELIGIBILITY

New condition requires the district to adopt a policy to minimize service disruptions for residential prepay customers who are 65 or older, medically vulnerable, or dependent adults (as defined in Welfare and Institutions Code Section 15610.23).

SCOPE

Electronic delivery of notices under Section 12823.1(g) now explicitly excludes notices pursuant to subdivision (b), meaning the 24-hour phone or personal contact before termination cannot be replaced with electronic notice.

Section 12823.2(b) changed from exempting 'termination of service' to specifically 'termination of electrical service,' narrowing the exemption to electrical service only.

DEFINITION

New subsection (c) in Section 12823.2 defines 'prepay option' as a payment option enabling customers to pay for a specified amount of electrical service before that service is rendered.

06/25/26 - Amended Senate → 08/21/26 - Amended Senate · 4 edits · Aug 21, 2026

MODERATE

The August 21 amendment to AB 1945 strengthens protections for customers with existing delinquencies who are on arrearage payment plans. It adds a new exception allowing such customers to voluntarily convert to prepay service if their deposit covers the full delinquency, and requires the district to apply that deposit against the debt first. The amendment also updates the bill digest to explicitly reference the prepay option and makes minor wording corrections.

ELIGIBILITY

A customer who is in compliance with an arrearage payment plan may now voluntarily elect to convert to prepay service, provided their deposit equals or exceeds the amount of the delinquency. This was not permitted under the prior version, which simply barred conversion while the customer remained in compliance.

REQUIREMENT

Upon a customer's voluntary conversion from an arrearage payment plan to prepay service, the district must apply the customer's deposit to the delinquency first, with any remaining balance credited to the customer's account.

SCOPE

The vulnerable-customer protection policy (minimizing service disruptions) was broadened from 'residential customers' to simply 'customers,' removing the residential limitation.

TECHNICAL

The legislative counsel's digest was updated to include 'prepay option' in the bill title description, and page numbers were corrected from 96 to 95 throughout.

08/21/26 - Amended Senate → AB1945 · 1 edit

MINOR

No substantive policy changes were made between these two versions. The differences are entirely in document formatting and presentation: the old version used a traditional legislative PDF layout with line numbers and page headers, while the new version uses a web-based format with navigation elements. The actual bill text of Sections 12823.1 and 12823.2 is identical in both versions.

TECHNICAL

Document formatting changed from a printed legislative layout (with line numbers, page headers/footers, and indentation) to a web-based presentation format with navigation links and different text wrapping. No changes to the substantive legal provisions.

04/16/26 - Amended Assembly → 06/25/26 - Amended Senate · 6 edits · Jun 25, 2026

MODERATE

The Senate amendment expands the electronic notice provision to all districts (removing the 100,000-customer cap), adds a new deposit requirement for prepay option eligibility tied to Section 12822.6, and introduces a protective rule preventing conversion of customers in arrears to prepay service while they are in compliance with an arrearage payment plan. These changes broaden access to electronic notices while adding consumer safeguards around the prepay program.

SCOPE

The electronic notice option (email, text, app-based) is no longer limited to districts serving fewer than 100,000 customers. All districts may now offer customers the choice of receiving delinquency notices electronically.

The prepay option is now explicitly limited to 'residential customers' rather than all customers, though the prior language was already largely residential in context.

ELIGIBILITY

A new condition requires that for new residential applicants on or after January 1, 2027, the customer must have paid a deposit under a decision described in Section 12822.6 to be eligible for the prepay option. Customers with an existing deposit held by the district are also deemed eligible.

REQUIREMENT

Before converting a customer whose account is in arrears to the prepay option, the district must offer that customer the opportunity to participate in an arrearage payment plan. A customer who elects and complies with such a plan cannot be converted to prepay service while remaining in compliance.

The requirement for districts to provide 'electronic access' to usage and account balance information was broadened to simply 'access,' removing the electronic-only mandate.

FISCAL

The separate fund restriction now carves out exceptions for both paragraph (7) (arrearage payment plan) and paragraph (8) (refund of unexpended balance), rather than only paragraph (7).

02/13/26 - Introduced → 03/16/26 - Amended Assembly · 4 edits · Mar 16, 2026

MODERATE

The amendment to AB 1945 is primarily a technical cleanup with no substantive policy changes. It removes redundant wording (such as 'prior to before' changed to simply 'before'), fixes a grammar error ('a notation thereof of the restoration' to 'a notation of the restoration'), restructures nested numbering in subsection (d)(1) by eliminating unnecessary paragraph designators, and adds the word 'electronic' for clarity in the electronic notice provision.

TECHNICAL

Removed redundant phrasing 'prior to before' and replaced with simply 'before' in multiple locations (subsections a, b, and e).

Fixed grammar in subsection (f): changed 'a notation thereof of the restoration' to 'a notation of the restoration.'

Restructured subsection (d)(1) by removing nested numbered paragraph designators (1)-(7) and using only lettered items (A)-(G), simplifying the list format.

Added the word 'electronic' before 'method' in subsection (g) to clarify that the alternative notice methods are electronic in nature.

Municipal utility districts: prepay option: termination of service.

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