Electricity: demand response.

Under existing law, the Public Utilities Commission has regulatory authority over public utilities, including electrical corporations. Existing law requires each load-serving entity, defined as including electrical corporations, electric service providers, and community choice aggregators, to maintain physical generating capacity and electrical demand response adequate to meet its electrical demand requirements. Existing law requires the commission to establish rules for how and when backup generation may be used within a demand response program and to establish reporting and data collection requirements to verify compliance with those rules. Pursuant to existing law, the commission has authorized the state's 3 largest electrical corporations to offer reliability-based demand response programs, including the base interruptible program, which is available to qualifying nonresidential customers of an electrical corporation. This bill would expressly require each of those large electrical corporations to administer the base interruptible program, except as specified. The bill would require each of those large electrical corporations to make its base interruptible program available to its qualifying commercial, agricultural, and industrial customers regardless of the load-serving entity that is those customers' supplier of electricity. Because the bill would require actions by those load-serving entities that are community choice aggregators, the bill would impose a state-mandated local program. The bill would require the commission to implement a pilot economic demand response program or optional rate design, to be administered by those large electrical corporations, in which base interruptible program participants may elect to participate, to operate for a 4-year period, as specified. Under existing law, the Scheduled Load Reduction Program requires each electrical corporation to develop and offer to its customers the opportunity to participate in a demand reduction program and requires the commission to develop appropriate incentives for customers to participate in the program. This bill would repeal that program. 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. Because the provisions of this bill would be a part of the act and because a violation of a commission action implementing its requirements 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 specified reasons.