Food assistance: disasters: utilities.

Gas corporations and water corporations are removed from all data-sharing obligations. Only electrical corporations and local publicly owned electric utilities remain subject to the requirements.

Section 18917.2(b) was simplified from requiring the department to maintain 'at least one dedicated point of contact' with each utility type to simply 'maintain contact' with electrical corporations and local publicly owned electric utilities.

The Public Utilities Commission's authority to establish memoranda of understanding or other agreements changed from mandatory ('shall') to permissive ('may'), giving the commission discretion over whether to formalize data-sharing arrangements.

Point-of-contact requirements were simplified. Electrical corporations must 'have a dedicated point of contact' and local publicly owned electric utilities must 'designate a point of contact,' both referencing subdivisions (a) and (b) rather than requiring separate MOU establishment as part of the point-of-contact obligation.

Definitions for 'gas corporation' (Section 222) and 'water corporation' (Section 241) were removed from both Section 8410 and Section 18917.2(d), consistent with the removal of those entities from the bill's scope.

The commission's obligation to establish memoranda of understanding changed from mandatory ('shall establish') to discretionary ('as it deems necessary for the exchange of aggregated data, may establish'). The same change was made for governing boards of local publicly owned electric utilities.

A new specific deadline and threshold was added: electrical corporations, gas corporations, water corporations, and local publicly owned electric utilities must, within 7 calendar days, make a reasonable effort to provide aggregated customer outage data for outages of 4 hours or longer in response to a department request.

New 'notwithstanding any other law' language was added to the data response requirement, making the obligation to respond independent of whether an MOU or data sharing agreement has been executed.

A new requirement was added for local publicly owned electric utilities: the State Department of Social Services must notify each local publicly owned electric utility of any changes to federal requirements in a timely manner.

A new data specification subsection was added requiring that provided data include, at minimum: dates of power outages, duration in hours, counties affected, ZIP Codes affected, total number of residential customers in each affected ZIP Code, and total number of residential customers who lost electrical service during the outages.

The Welfare and Institutions Code section was renumbered from 18917.1 to 18917.2, and the general 'utility' definition was removed from both the Public Utilities Code chapter and the Welfare and Institutions Code section, with individual entity definitions retained instead.

The bill now splits utility obligations into two separate sections: Section 8411 requires the Public Utilities Commission to establish data-sharing agreements for electrical corporations, gas corporations, and water corporations, while new Section 8412 requires the governing board of each local publicly owned electric utility to establish its own agreements. Previously, all utilities were treated uniformly under a single section with the commission directing all of them.

The Welfare and Institutions Code section is renumbered from 18917.1 to 18917.2, with all cross-references updated throughout the bill. This suggests Section 18917.1 was claimed by another measure.

Senator Stern is added as a co-author, indicating bipartisan or cross-chamber sponsorship of the amended version.

Data sharing requirements now specify that customer outage data must be aggregated at the ZIP Code level, adding a concrete granularity limit that was not present in the Assembly version. This narrows what data utilities must provide and strengthens privacy protections.

Definitions for electrical corporation, gas corporation, water corporation, and local publicly owned electric utility are moved into their own section (Section 8410) rather than being embedded as a single 'utility' definition within the operative provision. The same definitions are also repeated in the Welfare and Institutions Code section.

Header changed from the enrolled bill format (with passage dates, clerk signatures, and blank approval date) to the chaptered law format showing 'STATE OF CALIFORNIA AUTHENTICATED ELECTRONIC LEGAL MATERIAL,' chapter number 709, and the governor's approval date of October 13, 2025.

Page numbering changed from 'AB 777' format to 'Ch. 709' format throughout the document.

Line wrapping and indentation of all statutory text (Sections 8410, 8411, 8412, and 18917.2) was reformatted to match the chaptered law layout, but no words were added, removed, or altered in the operative provisions.

The definition of 'utility' in Section 8410(d) was narrowed by removing 'any public utility, as defined in Section 216.' The bill now only applies to electrical corporations, gas corporations, water corporations, and local publicly owned electric utilities, rather than the broader category of all public utilities.

New data protection requirements were added to subdivision (a) of Section 8410. Any memorandum of understanding or data sharing agreement must now include: (A) a limitation to aggregated customer outage data only, with no personally identifiable information; (B) a prohibition on using the data for any purpose other than food assistance under this section and Section 18917.1; and (C) compliance with all applicable privacy laws.

The term 'Disaster SNAP' was replaced with 'D-SNAP' throughout the bill for consistency, including in the legislative digest title which changed from 'public utilities' to 'utilities.'

All provisions amending Section 336 of the Public Utilities Code were removed. This had would have expanded the Electricity Oversight Board from 5 to 7 members by adding a second Assembly member and a second Senate member as nonvoting legislators.

The definition of 'utility' in new Section 8410(d) was expanded beyond public utilities and local publicly owned electric utilities to also include electrical corporations (Section 218), gas corporations (Section 222), and water corporations (Section 241).

A new subdivision (d) was added to Section 18917.1 of the Welfare and Institutions Code, defining 'utility' by cross-reference to Section 8410 of the Public Utilities Code.

The Public Utilities Commission is now explicitly required to establish memorandums of understanding or other data sharing agreements necessary to direct utilities to provide data to the State Department of Social Services. Previously, only the utilities themselves had this obligation.

Section 8410(c) broadened the commission's technical assistance duty from simply supporting the legislative report to 'including, but not limited to, technical assistance to support the report,' making the scope of assistance open-ended.

The state-mandated local program designation changed from 'no' to 'yes,' indicating the bill now imposes costs on local agencies (specifically local publicly owned electric utilities) that trigger reimbursement analysis under the California Constitution.

Added Chapter 10 (Section 8410) to Division 4.1 of the Public Utilities Code, requiring all utilities (public utilities and local publicly owned electric utilities) to timely respond to data requests from the State Department of Social Services, maintain a dedicated point of contact, and establish data sharing agreements to maximize food assistance availability.

The original Electricity Oversight Board expansion (from 5 to 7 members, adding one Assembly and one Senate member) is retained but renumbered as the final section of the bill, now secondary to the new food assistance provisions.

Added Section 18917.1 to the Welfare and Institutions Code, requiring the State Department of Social Services to maximize assistance through Disaster SNAP and all other federally funded nutrition assistance programs by seeking necessary data from utilities, and to maintain at least one dedicated point of contact with each utility.

Added a requirement for the State Department of Social Services to submit a report to the Legislature by December 31, 2026, covering ways to maximize federal food assistance during disasters and any additional oversight needed. The report requirement sunsets on January 1, 2030.

Added a provision that no state reimbursement is required under Article XIII B of the California Constitution for costs imposed on local agencies, because local agencies can levy service charges or the costs arise from changes to crime definitions. The bill now imposes a state-mandated local program (changed from 'no' to 'yes') due to new duties on local publicly owned electric utilities.