Electricity procurement.

(1) Under existing law, the Public Utilities Commission has regulatory authority over public utilities, including electrical corporations, as defined, while local publicly owned electric utilities, as defined, are under the direction of their governing board. The Public Utilities Act imposes various duties and responsibilities on the Public Utilities Commission with respect to the purchase of electricity and requires the commission to review and adopt a procurement plan and a renewable energy procurement plan for each electrical corporation pursuant to the California Renewables Portfolio Standard Program. The Public Utilities Act requires the Public Utilities Commission to review and adopt an overall procurement plan for each electrical corporation to meet electricity demand for its customers in accordance with specified elements, incentive mechanisms, and objectives. The act requires the Public Utilities Commission to review and accept, modify, or reject each electrical corporation's procurement plan and requires that each approved procurement plan accomplish specified objectives. This bill would require the Public Utilities Commission to direct electrical corporations to include in their proposed procurement plans the costs of integrating an eligible renewable energy resource, as specified. (2) The California Renewables Portfolio Standard Program requires a retail seller, as defined, and local publicly owned electric utilities to purchase specified minimum quantities of electricity products from eligible renewable energy resources, as defined, for specified compliance periods. The program, consistent with the goals of procuring the least-cost and best-fit eligible renewable energy resources that meet project viability principles, requires that all retail sellers procure a balanced portfolio of electricity products from eligible renewable energy resources, as specified, referred to as the portfolio content requirements. The program requires the commission to adopt, by rulemaking, a process that provides criteria for the rank ordering and selecting of least-cost and best-fit eligible renewable energy resources to comply with the program obligations on a total cost basis, taking into account specified matter. This bill additionally would require the commission to adopt, by rulemaking, by December 31, 2015, a methodology for determining the costs of integrating an eligible renewable energy resource.