Electricity: deenergization events.

Existing law requires each electrical corporation to annually prepare a wildfire mitigation plan and to submit the plan to the Public Utilities Commission for review and approval, as specified. Following approval, the commission is required to oversee compliance with the plans. Existing law requires a wildfire mitigation plan of an electrical corporation to include, among other things, protocols for deenergizing portions of the electrical distribution system that consider the associated impacts on public safety, as well as protocols related to mitigating the public safety impacts of those protocols, including impacts on critical first responders and on health and communications infrastructure. Existing law requires a wildfire mitigation plan of an electrical corporation to also include appropriate and feasible procedures for notifying a customer who may be impacted by the deenergizing of electrical lines and requires these procedures to consider the need to notify, as a priority, critical first responders, health care facilities, and operators of telecommunications infrastructure with premises within the footprint of a potential deenergization event. This bill would require an electrical corporation to include, as a part of the notification of its customers of a deenergization event, an estimate of the duration of the deenergization event and an estimate of the total area affected, and would require the electrical corporation to update those estimates in subsequent notifications of the deenergization event. The bill would require the electrical corporation to provide initial notifications of a deenergization event to all potentially affected customers at least 72 hours, and again approximately 48 and 24 hours, before the deenergization event using personalized contact, as specified. The bill would require the electrical corporation to additionally provide an initial notification to the public by specified publicly accessible media at least 72 hours before the deenergization event. If the electrical corporation fails to comply with these notification requirements, the bill would require the electrical corporation to submit to the commission written justification for noncompliance. The bill would assess a specified penalty if the commission determines that the noncompliance is not justified. The bill would require the commission to require each electrical corporation to establish a program to provide backup energy storage systems for critical facilities and critical infrastructure, as specified, to enable them to continue operation during a deenergization event and a program to provide those systems to customers receiving medical baseline allowances to enable those customers to continue operating their life-support equipment during a deenergization event. The bill would prohibit an electrical corporation from recovering from its customers the costs incurred for a deenergization event under specified circumstances. Under existing law, a violation of any order, decision, rule, direction, demand, or requirement of the commission is a crime. Because this bill requires action by the commission to implement its requirements, and because a violation of that action would be a crime, 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 a specified reason.