Electricity: net metering.

Under existing law, the Public Utilities Commission (PUC) has regulatory authority over public utilities, including electrical corporations, as defined. Existing law authorizes the commission to fix the rates and charges for every public utility, and requires that those rates and charges be just and reasonable. Existing law, relative to private energy producers, requires every electric utility, as defined, to make available to an eligible customer-generator, as defined, a standard contract or tariff for net energy metering on a first-come-first-served basis until the time that the total rated generating capacity used by eligible customer-generators exceeds 5% of the electric utility's aggregate customer peak demand. The existing definition of an eligible customer-generator requires that the generating facility use a solar or wind turbine, or a hybrid system of both, and have a generating capacity of not more than one megawatt. Existing law establishes wind energy co-metering that provides a credit against the generation component of an electricity bill of an electric utility for those customer-generators utilizing a wind energy project greater than 50 kilowatts, but not exceeding one megawatt. This bill would revise the definition of an eligible customer-generator to include a state agency, as defined. The bill would require that the generating capacity of a facility used by a state agency not exceed 5 megawatts pursuant to both the net energy metering requirements and the wind energy co-metering requirements. 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 require action by the commission to implement its requirements and a violation of that order would be a crime, the bill would impose a state-mandated local program by creating a new crime. Because the provisions of the bill are applicable to, and require action by, local publicly owned electric utilities, which are entities of local government, 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.