Senate BillFailedPublic Utilities
SB 618: Electricity: deenergization events: report: compensation.
What SB 618 does, verified February 3, 2026
The bill aims to improve wildfire mitigation by requiring public utilities to prepare and submit wildfire mitigation plans to the Public Utilities Commission. These plans must include protocols for deenergizing portions of the electrical distribution system to minimize public safety impacts. After a deenergization event, the utilities must file a report with the commission, which must include the cost to customers for the interruption of service. The commission is authorized to develop a standardized methodology for calculating this cost and may assess fines or penalties on utilities that violate deenergization protocols. Revenues from these fines will be used to provide automatic credits to customers affected by the deenergization event.
Bill journey
✓IntroducedComplete
2In CommitteeCurrent
3First Chamber FloorPending
4Second ChamberPending
5GovernorPending
6ChapteredPending
Last action: Returned to Secretary of Senate pursuant to Joint Rule 56. (2026-02-02)Alert me
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| Feb. 02, 2026 | Returned to Secretary of Senate pursuant to Joint Rule 56. |
| May. 23, 2025 | May 23 hearing: Held in committee and under submission. |
| May. 20, 2025 | Set for hearing May 23. |
| May. 19, 2025 | May 19 hearing: Placed on APPR. suspense file. |
| May. 09, 2025 | Set for hearing May 19. |
Latest bill textAmended version, May 1, 2025 · 1,927 words
| Amended IN Senate May 01, 2025 |
| Amended IN Senate March 26, 2025 |
CALIFORNIA LEGISLATURE— 2025–2026 REGULAR SESSION
Senate Bill
No. 618
| Introduced by Senator Reyes (Coauthor: Senator Stern) |
February 20, 2025 |
An act to amend Section 8387 of, and to add Section 8386.8 8386.9 to, the Public Utilities Code, relating to electricity.
LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST
SB 618, as amended, Reyes. Electricity: deenergization events: reimbursement credit. events: report: compensation.
Existing law vests the Public Utilities Commission with regulatory authority over public utilities, including electrical corporations, while local publicly owned electric utilities are under the direction of their governing boards. Existing law requires each electrical corporation to annually prepare a wildfire mitigation plan and to submit its plan to the commission for review and approval, as specified. Existing law requires that the wildfire mitigation plan include, among other things, protocols for deenergizing portions of the electrical distribution system that consider the associated impacts on public safety.
This bill would require each electrical corporation to automatically provide a reimbursement credit to all customers affected by a deenergization event in an amount equal to $30 for every 24 hours that a customer experiences a deenergization event. The bill would prohibit the reimbursement credit from being funded with ratepayer moneys. each electrical corporation to file a postdeenergization event report with the commission following a deenergization event that includes the duration of the deenergization event, the circuits affected, the number of customers impacted, and any other information required by the commission. The bill would also require each electrical corporation to include the cost to a customer of the interruption of electrical service, per affected customer, and the aggregated cost for all affected customers in the report, and would require the commission, in a new or existing proceeding, to develop a standardized methodology for calculating that cost, as specified. The bill would authorize the commission to assess a fine or penalty on an electrical corporation following its review of a deenergization event if the commission determines the electrical corporation violated deenergization protocols, commission rules, laws, or other requirements. If the commission assesses a fine or penalty on an electrical corporation, the bill would require the commission to consider the impact of the deenergization event on the electrical corporation’s customers and to direct any revenues from the fine or penalty to automatic credits to those customers affected by the deenergization event, as specified.
Existing law requires each local publicly owned electric utility to prepare a wildfire mitigation plan and to verify that the wildfire mitigation plan complies with all applicable rules, regulations, and standards, as appropriate. Existing law requires that the wildfire mitigation plan includes, among other things, protocols for deenergizing portions of the electrical distribution system that consider the associated impacts on public safety.
This bill would require the wildfire mitigation plan to additionally include appropriate and feasible procedures for compensating a customer who may be impacted by the deenergizing of electrical lines.
Under existing law, a violation of any order, decision, rule, direction, demand, or requirement of the commission is a crime.
Because a violation of a commission action implementing this bill’s requirements would be a crime, the bill would impose a state-mandated local program.
Additionally, by imposing new duties on 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.
The people of the State of California do enact as follows:
(a)Each electrical corporation shall automatically provide a reimbursement credit to all customers effected by a deenergization event in an amount equal to thirty dollars ($30) for every 24 hours that a customer experiences a deenergization event.
(b)The reimbursement credit amount shall not be funded by ratepayer moneys.
(c)The reimbursement credit shall be issued automatically to a customer’s billing statement within one billing cycle after the conclusion of the deenergization event.
SECTION 1.
Section 8386.9 is added to the Public Utilities Code, to read:8386.9.
(a) Each electrical corporation shall file a postdeenergization event report with the commission following a deenergization event, pursuant to subdivision (c) of Section 8386, that includes the duration of the deenergization event, the circuits affected, the number of customers impacted, and any other information required by the commission.(b) (1) Each electrical corporation shall include the cost to a customer of the interruption of electrical service, per affected customer, and the aggregated cost for all affected customers in a report filed pursuant to subdivision (a).
(2) The commission, in a new or existing proceeding, shall develop a standardized methodology for calculating the cost to a customer of the interruption of electrical service that shall be used by an electrical corporation for a report filed pursuant to subdivision (a).
(c) (1) The commission may assess a fine or penalty on an electrical corporation following its review of a deenergization event if the commission determines the electrical corporation violated deenergization protocols, commission rules, laws, or other requirements.
(2) If the commission assesses a fine or penalty on an electrical corporation pursuant to paragraph (1), the commission shall consider the impact of the deenergization event on the electrical corporation’s customers and shall direct any revenues from the fine or penalty to automatic credits to those customers affected by the deenergization event.
(3) The commission shall ensure that any fine or penalty assessed pursuant to this subdivision is recovered from the electrical corporation’s shareholders and not recovered from ratepayers.
SEC. 2.
Section 8387 of the Public Utilities Code is amended to read:8387.
(a) Each local publicly owned electric utility and electrical cooperative shall construct, maintain, and operate its electrical lines and equipment in a manner that will minimize the risk of wildfire posed by those electrical lines and equipment.(b) (1) The local publicly owned electric utility or electrical cooperative shall, before January 1, 2020, prepare a wildfire mitigation plan. After January 1, 2020, a local publicly owned electric utility or electrical cooperative shall prepare a wildfire mitigation plan annually and shall submit the plan to the California Wildfire Safety Advisory Board on or before July 1 of that calendar year. Each local publicly owned electric utility and electrical cooperative shall update its plan annually and submit the update to the California Wildfire Safety Advisory Board by July 1 of each year. At least once every three years, the submission shall be a comprehensive revision of the plan.
(2) The wildfire mitigation plan shall consider as necessary, at minimum, all of the following:
(A) An accounting of the responsibilities of persons responsible for executing the plan.
(B) The objectives of the wildfire mitigation plan.
(C) A description of the preventive strategies and programs to be adopted by the local publicly owned electric utility or electrical cooperative to minimize the risk of its electrical lines and equipment causing catastrophic wildfires, including consideration of dynamic climate change risks.
(D) A description of the metrics the local publicly owned electric utility or electrical cooperative plans to use to evaluate the wildfire mitigation plan’s performance and the assumptions that underlie the use of those metrics.
(E) A discussion of how the application of previously identified metrics to previous wildfire mitigation plan performances has informed the wildfire mitigation plan.
(F) Protocols for disabling reclosers and deenergizing portions of the electrical distribution system that consider the associated impacts on public safety, and protocols related to mitigating the public safety impacts of those protocols, including impacts on critical first responders and on health and communication infrastructure.
(G) Appropriate and feasible procedures for notifying a customer who may be impacted by the deenergizing of electrical lines. The procedures shall direct notification to all public safety offices, critical first responders, health care facilities, and operators of telecommunications infrastructure with premises within the footprint of potential deenergization for a given event.
(H) Plans for vegetation management.
(I) Plans for inspections of the local publicly owned electric utility’s or electrical cooperative’s electrical infrastructure.
(J) A list that identifies, describes, and prioritizes all wildfire risks, and drivers for those risks, throughout the local publicly owned electric utility’s or electrical cooperative’s service territory. The list shall include, but not be limited to, both of the following:
(i) Risks and risk drivers associated with design, construction, operation, and maintenance of the local publicly owned electric utility’s or electrical cooperative’s equipment and facilities.
(ii) Particular risks and risk drivers associated with topographic and climatological risk factors throughout the different parts of the local publicly owned electric utility’s or electrical cooperative’s service territory.
(K) Identification of any geographic area in the local publicly owned electric utility’s or electrical cooperative’s service territory that is a higher wildfire threat than is identified in a commission fire threat map, and identification of where the commission should expand a high fire-threat district based on new information or changes to the environment.
(L) A methodology for identifying and presenting enterprisewide safety risk and wildfire-related risk.
(M) A statement of how the local publicly owned electric utility or electrical cooperative will restore service after a wildfire.
(N) A description of the processes and procedures the local publicly owned electric utility or electrical cooperative shall use to do all of the following:
(i) Monitor and audit the implementation of the wildfire mitigation plan.
(ii) Identify any deficiencies in the wildfire mitigation plan or its implementation, and correct those deficiencies.
(iii) Monitor and audit the effectiveness of electrical line and equipment inspections, including inspections performed by contractors, that are carried out under the plan, other applicable statutes, or commission rules.
(O) Appropriate and feasible procedures for compensating a customer who may be impacted by the deenergizing of electrical lines.
(3) The local publicly owned electric utility or electrical cooperative shall, on or before January 1, 2020, and not less than annually thereafter, present its wildfire mitigation plan in an appropriately noticed public meeting. The local publicly owned electric utility or electrical cooperative shall accept comments on its wildfire mitigation plan from the public, other local and state agencies, and interested parties, and shall verify that the wildfire mitigation plan complies with all applicable rules, regulations, and standards, as appropriate.
(c) The local publicly owned electric utility or electrical cooperative shall contract with a qualified independent evaluator with experience in assessing the safe operation of electrical infrastructure to review and assess the comprehensiveness of its wildfire mitigation plan. The independent evaluator shall issue a report that shall be made available on the internet website of the local publicly owned electric utility or electrical cooperative, and shall present the report at a public meeting of the local publicly owned electric utility’s or electrical cooperative’s governing board.
SEC. 3.
No reimbursement is required by this act pursuant to Section 6 of Article XIII B of the California Constitution because a local agency or school district has the authority to levy service charges, fees, or assessments sufficient to pay for the program or level of service mandated by this act or because costs that may be incurred by a local agency or school district will be incurred because this act creates a new crime or infraction, eliminates a crime or infraction, or changes the penalty for a crime or infraction, within the meaning of Section 17556 of the Government Code, or changes the definition of a crime within the meaning of Section 6 of Article XIII B of the California Constitution.Text of SB 618 as amended, from the official record. Connect Plus keeps every version and highlights what changed.Compare versions