Distributed generation.

The existing Warren-Alquist State Energy Resources Conservation and Development Act establishes the State Energy Resources Conservation and Development Commission (Energy Commission) . Existing law requires the Energy Commission to undertake a continuing assessment of trends in the consumption of electricity and other forms of energy and to analyze the social, economic, and environmental consequences of those trends and to collect from electric utilities, gas utilities, and fuel producers and wholesalers and other sources, forecasts of future supplies and consumption of all forms of energy. This bill would require each large electrical corporation, as defined, and large local publicly owned electric utility, as defined, to identify and designate zones within their service territory that are optimal for deployment of distributed generation, and to provide this information to the Energy Commission by December 31, 2012. The bill would require the Energy Commission, in consultation with the Public Utilities Commission (PUC) , to develop guidelines for those electrical utilities to utilize in identifying and designating those zones. The bill would require the Energy Commission to review each electrical utility's designation of zones that are optimal for deployment of distributed generation and approve or disapprove the designation of zones made by each electrical utility. The bill would require that, upon approval by the Energy Commission, that each electrical utility make this information available on its Internet Web site. Under existing law, the PUC has regulatory authority over public utilities, including electrical corporations, as defined. Existing law requires the PUC, in consultation with the Energy Commission, to administer, until January 1, 2016, a self-generation incentive program for distributed generation resources and to separately administer solar technologies pursuant to the California Solar Initiative. This bill would declare the intent of the Legislature that in supervising and administering the California Solar Initiative and self-generation program, that the PUC give priority to those distributed generation projects that are proposed to be located within zones designated by an electrical corporation to be optimal for deployment of distributed generation. The bill would additionally state the intent of the Legislature that the PUC review current rules, pertaining to interconnection, to facilitate interconnections of distributed generation facilities within those zones.