Existing law requires the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) to identify a diverse and balanced portfolio of resources needed to ensure a reliable electricity supply that provides optimal integration of renewable energy in a cost-effective manner. Existing law requires the CPUC to adopt a process for each load-serving entity, as defined, to file an integrated resource plan and a schedule for periodic updates to the plan, and to ensure that load-serving entities meet other specified requirements.
This bill would require that the portfolio of resources ensure a reliable electricity supply that also provides optimal integration of resource diversity in a cost-effective manner. The bill would authorize the CPUC to direct an electrical corporation, and request the Department of Water Resources (DWR), to procure diverse clean energy resources that satisfy the portfolio of resources. The bill would authorize the CPUC to order resource procurement as a result of the integrated resource planning process and require the CPUC to enforce any resource procurement requirements on a nondiscriminatory basis.
Existing law establishes the DWR Electricity Supply Reliability Reserve Fund and continuously appropriates moneys in the fund to the department for purposes of implementing projects, purchases, and contracts to carry out specified purposes, including, but not limited to, the Distributed Electricity Backup Assets Program and the Demand Side Grid Support Program.
This bill would:
- Require the CPUC to annually assess a capacity payment for the use of the fund by each load-serving entity that fails to meet its system resource adequacy requirements during a month in which resources procured using moneys from the fund were used to meet a reliability need;
- Require the executive director of the California Energy Commission (CEC) to annually assess a capacity payment for the use of the fund by each local publicly owned electric utility that fails to meet its minimum planning reserve margin during a month in which resources procured using moneys from the fund were used to meet a reliability need, and authorize the CEC to adopt regulations for this purpose;
- Require the DWR to collect any capacity payment ordered pursuant to those requirements and to deposit those payments into the fund, thereby making an appropriation;
- Authorize the DWR following a determination from the CPUC, in consultation with the CEC and the Independent System Operator, that it is necessary for the DWR to develop and conduct one or more competitive solicitations to procure energy, capacity, ancillary services, and all associated attributes, to conduct those solicitations;
- Authorize the DWR to establish a schedule and mechanism for any local publicly owned electric utility to voluntarily obtain from the DWR energy, capacity, or ancillary services to be acquired by the DWR through its central procurement function on a contract-by-contract basis;
- Authorize, at the request of the DWR, the CPUC to order an electrical corporation to provide for the transmission of and distribute all electricity made available by the DWR, and, as an agent of the DWR, to provide billing, collection, and other related services on terms and conditions that reasonably compensate the electrical corporation for its services and adequately secure payment to the DWR;
- Establish the Clean Energy Central Procurement Fund and continuously appropriate moneys in the fund to the DWR for specified purposes;
- Require that all moneys collected by load-serving entities and remitted to the DWR with respect to certain diverse clean energy resources, and all moneys paid directly or indirectly to the DWR with respect to the sale, exchange, transfer, or disposition of certain energy, be deposited into the fund;
- Authorize the DWR, upon determining that it is necessary or desirable to issue bonds to support activities for the procurement of diverse clean energy resources, to issue bonds for purposes of, among other things, financing the procurement of diverse clean energy resources supporting the fund and other related expenses incurred by the DWR;
- Authorize the DWR to adopt regulations for purposes of administering these provisions.
