California Renewables Portfolio Standard Program: integrated resource plans.

Under existing law, the Public Utilities Commission has regulatory authority over public utilities, including electrical corporations. The California Renewables Portfolio Standard Program requires the Public Utilities Commission to establish a renewables portfolio standard requiring all retail sellers, defined as including electrical corporations, electric service providers, and community choice aggregators, to procure a minimum quantity of electricity products from eligible renewable energy resources, as defined, so that the total kilowatthours of those products sold to their retail end-use customers achieves 25% of retail sales by December 31, 2016, 33% by December 31, 2020, 44% by December 31, 2024, 52% by December 31, 2027, and 60% by December 31, 2030. Existing law requires the commission to direct each retail seller to prepare and submit an annual report to the commission that includes specified information on the retail seller's compliance with requirements related to eligible renewable energy resource procurement. This bill would require the commission to review each annual compliance report filed by a retail seller, to notify a retail seller if the commission has determined, based upon its review, that the retail seller may be at risk of not satisfying the renewable procurement requirements for the then-current or future compliance period, and to provide recommendations in that circumstance regarding satisfying those requirements. Existing law requires the commission to adopt a process for each load-serving entity, defined as an electrical corporation, electric service provider, or community choice aggregator serving end-use customers in the state, to file an integrated resource plan and a schedule for periodic updates to the plan to ensure that load-serving entities accomplish specified objectives. Existing law requires each load-serving entity to prepare and file an integrated resource plan consistent with those objectives on a time schedule directed by the commission and subject to commission review. This bill would expressly require the commission to ensure that load-serving entities do what is required to be done by their integrated resource plans, and ensure that load-serving entities comply with an existing requirement that at least 65% of the procurement that a retail seller counts toward the renewables portfolio standard requirement of each compliance period be from contracts of 10 years or more in duration or from its ownership or ownership agreements from eligible renewable energy resources.