Electricity.

The Public Utilities Act requires the Public Utilities Commission, pursuant to electrical restructuring, to authorize and facilitate direct transactions between electricity suppliers and retail end-use customers. Statutes enacted during the energy crisis of 2000–01, authorized the Department of Water Resources, until January 1, 2003, to enter into contracts for the purchase of electricity, and to sell electricity to retail end-use customers at not more than the department's acquisition costs and to recover those costs through the issuance of bonds to be repaid by ratepayers. That law suspended the right of retail end-use customers, other than community choice aggregators and a qualifying direct transaction customer, as defined, to acquire service through a direct transaction until the Department of Water Resources no longer supplies electricity under that law. Existing law continues the suspension of direct transactions except as expressly authorized, until the Legislature, by statute, repeals the suspension or otherwise authorizes direct transactions. Existing law requires the commission to authorize direct transactions for nonresidential end-use customers subject to a reopening schedule that will phase in over a period of not less than 3 years and not more than 5 years, and is subject to an annual maximum allowable total kilowatthour limit established, as specified, for each electrical corporation. 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. This bill would additionally require the commission, when authorizing additional direct transactions for retail nonresidential end-use customers, to provide the highest priority to acquire electric services from other providers to entities treating and remediating groundwater that a federal, state, or local agency identifies as contaminated if the entity is a public drinking water system serving a disadvantaged or severely disadvantaged community. The bill would require the entity treating and remediating contaminated groundwater to use moneys saved as a result of the direct transaction for activities related to the treatment and remediation of the groundwater. Because a violation of this requirement is a crime, this bill would impose a state-mandated local program. The bill would correct a statutory reference to a reporting requirement of the commission. 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 a specified reason.