California Renewables Portfolio Standard Program.

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 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 would additionally require that the process providing criteria for the rank ordering and selecting of least-cost and best-fit eligible renewable energy resources to comply with the program obligations include procurement of specific types of eligible renewable energy resources necessary to maintain the reliability of the electrical grid to meet electrical demand on a 24-hour basis and consider the attributes of utilizing geothermal and other renewable energy resources that provide environmental and electrical system benefits and contribute to grid reliability. The bill would require each electrical corporation, in soliciting and procuring eligible renewable energy resources, to consider the best-fit attributes of resource types that ensure a balanced resource mix to maintain the reliability of the electrical grid.