Planned power outage: public safety.

Existing law, the California Emergency Services Act, authorizes the Governor to proclaim a state of emergency, and local officials and local governments to proclaim a local emergency, when specified conditions of disaster or extreme peril to the safety of persons and property exist, and authorizes the Governor or the appropriate local government to exercise certain powers in response to that emergency. Existing law defines the terms "state of emergency" and "local emergency" to mean a duly proclaimed existence of conditions of disaster or of extreme peril to the safety of persons and property within the state caused by, among other things, fire, storm, or riot. This bill would additionally include a deenergization event, as defined, within a sudden and severe energy shortage constituting a state of emergency and a local emergency. Existing law requires each electrical corporation to annually prepare a wildfire mitigation plan and to submit its plan to the Public Utilities Commission for review and approval, as specified. Following approval, the commission is required to oversee compliance with the plan. 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, and protocols related to mitigating the public safety impacts of those protocols, including impacts on customers who receive medical baseline allowances. This bill would require an electrical corporation, as a part of its public safety mitigation protocols, to include protocols that deal specifically with access and functional needs individuals, as defined. The bill would require an electrical corporation to coordinate with local governments in its service territory to identify sites within those jurisdictions where community resource centers can be established and operated during a deenergization event and the level of services that will be available at those centers, as those terms are defined. The bill would require the electrical corporation to perform additional duties in coordination with local governments, including performing any necessary electrical upgrades to ensure that a mobile backup generator can be located at, and provide the necessary electricity for, the community resource center during a deenergization event. Under existing law, a violation of any order, decision, rule, direction, demand, or requirement of the commission is a crime. Because this bill would add additional requirements to an electrical corporation's wildfire mitigation plan that would be approved and overseen by the commission and because a violation by an electrical corporation of an order or decision of the commission implementing these requirements would be a crime, this 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.