SB 292: Electricity: wildfire mitigation: deenergization events and reliability.

2774.1.

(a) (1) The commission shall require an electrical corporation to include in an annual reliability report, required pursuant to Decision 96-09-045, as amended, or a decision that supersedes Decision 96-09-045, information on the reliability of service to end use customers that identifies, but is not limited to, the frequency and duration of interruptions in services. This information shall indicate areas with both the most frequent and longest outages, using local areas determined by the commission. The commission, in consultation with the electrical corporation, shall ensure that the geographical boundaries of local areas do not split up circuits for reporting purposes, if the electrical corporation aggregates data by circuits. The information shall be sufficiently aggregated to both maintain electrical system security, and be of use and relevance to affected customers of the electrical corporation.

(2) Before July 1, 2014, the commission shall determine the local areas for the purposes of paragraph (1).

(3) The requirements of paragraph (1) shall apply to annual reliability reports due after July 1, 2014.

(4) (A) On or before January 1, 2027, the commission shall determine, as part of the proceeding in Rulemaking 24-05-023 (June 6, 2024), Order Instituting Rulemaking to Update Rules for the Safety, Reliability, and Resiliency of Electrical Distribution Systems, or a successor proceeding, whether its existing policies, procedures, and rules should be revised or enhanced to augment the safety and reliability of the electrical distribution system. This determination shall consider, but not be limited to, all of the following:

(i) Enhancements or updates to annual reliability reports, including, but not limited to, reliability statistics of census tracts or other jurisdictions.

(ii) Data or statistics to aid the commission’s understanding of whether there are patterns of electrical outages that disproportionately affect tribal governments or rural, disadvantaged, or low-income communities.

(iii) Updates to General Order 166 for purposes of reliability thresholds and reporting requirements.

(B) The determination made by the commission pursuant to this paragraph does not affect the obligations of a local publicly owned electric utility pursuant to Section 9540.

(5) The electrical corporation shall conspicuously post on its internet website the annual reliability report required pursuant to Decision 96-09-045, as amended, or a decision that supersedes Decision 96-09-045.

(b) (1) The commission shall use the information contained in an electrical corporation’s annual reliability report to require cost-effective remediation of reliability deficiencies if the report, or more than one report, identifies repeated deficiencies in the same local area as determined by the commission pursuant to paragraph (1) of subdivision (a). In requiring cost-effective remediation, the commission shall consult with the electrical corporation and consider mitigating factors that may impede an electrical corporation from implementing required cost-effective remediation, including, but not limited to, local permitting matters or other events or conditions or public policy considerations that may present higher priority safety or reliability issues.

(2) The commission may suspend the requirements of paragraph (1) if the commission finds that expenditures by the electrical corporation to comply with that paragraph are not justified or that the remediation measures undertaken by the electrical corporation are not effective at improving reliability.

(c) (1) The commission may order an electrical corporation to make more frequent trend analyses of local area service reliability and to make those analyses publicly available.

(2) The information made publicly available shall provide sufficient confidentiality for purposes of protecting electrical system security.

(3) The commission may make those analyses publicly available.

8387.2.

(a) For purposes of this section, “access and functional needs population” has the same meaning as set forth in Section 8593.3 of the Government Code.

(b) Each electrical corporation shall work with representatives of state agencies and community-based organizations that serve, or advocate on behalf of, or both serve and advocate on behalf of, an access and functional needs population to develop and make publicly available a plan to support the access and functional needs population during a deenergization event, consistent with the commission’s orders regarding deenergization.

(c) An electrical corporation shall submit the plan developed pursuant to subdivision (b) to the commission.

8387.4.

(a) After each deenergization event, an electrical corporation shall prepare a post-deenergization event report on the deenergization event that complies with the commission’s reporting requirements established in a proceeding pursuant to Rulemaking 18-12-005 (December 19, 2018), Order Instituting Rulemaking to Examine Electric Utility De-Energization of Power Lines in Dangerous Conditions, or a successor proceeding, and any additional requirements determined by the Safety and Enforcement Division of the commission.

(b) On or before January 1, 2027, the commission shall determine whether the post-deenergization event report provided by an electrical corporation should include either of the following:

(1) Geospatial data on the locations of any circuit or circuit segments involved in the deenergization event mapped onto the service territory of the reporting entity and statistics describing the census tract-level impacts of the deenergization event to provide for a comparison of severity of the impacts caused by the deenergization event based on locations and populations affected.

(2) Information regarding the deenergization event disaggregated by census tract and whether the census tract is a disadvantaged community, as identified pursuant to Section 39711 of the Health and Safety Code.

(c) A report prepared pursuant to this section shall be filed, served, and distributed in accordance with the commission’s requirements established through a proceeding pursuant to Rulemaking 18-12-005 (December 19, 2018), Order Instituting Rulemaking to Examine Electric Utility De-Energization of Power Lines in Dangerous Conditions, or a successor proceeding. The report shall also be provided to the locally elected body and the city manager or the chief administrative officer of the cities and counties affected by the deenergization event to allow those local public entities to understand the location and scale of deenergization event impacts and to make appropriate decisions accordingly. The report shall be published and made publicly available on the electrical corporation’s internet website. The report shall be updated each year and submitted to the commission.

9540.

(a) A local publicly owned electric utility shall prepare and make publicly available, by posting conspicuously on its internet website, an annual reliability report that identifies, but is not limited to, the frequency and duration of interruptions in services. The report may include any of the following information:

(1) System- and division-level reliability, if relevant to that utility’s system.

(2) Reliability statistics at census tracts or smaller resolutions.

(3) Reliability statistics for customers that receive a form of financial assistance, including, but not limited to, enrollment in an income-qualifying rate assistance program or assistance program for energy allowances related to medical necessity.

(b) The reliability metrics described in subdivision (a) shall be reported with the worst performing circuits and shall include major event days.

(c) (1) The local publicly owned electric utility shall submit the annual reliability report to the Energy Commission.

(2) The information made publicly available shall provide sufficient confidentiality for purposes of protecting electrical system security.