Bill Text: CA AB2460 | 2015-2016 | Regular Session | Introduced

NOTE: There are more recent revisions of this legislation. Read Latest Draft

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Bill Title: Solar thermal systems.

Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Democrat 1-0)

Status: (Failed) 2016-11-30 - From Senate committee without further action. [AB2460 Detail]

Download: California-2015-AB2460-Introduced.html

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BILL NUMBER: AB 2460	INTRODUCED
	BILL TEXT


INTRODUCED BY   Assembly Member Irwin

                        FEBRUARY 19, 2016

   An act to amend Section 2851 of the Public Utilities Code,
relating to energy.


	LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST


   AB 2460, as introduced, Irwin. California Solar Initiative:
low-income residential housing.
   Under existing law, the Public Utilities Commission has regulatory
authority over public utilities, including electrical corporations,
as defined. Decisions of the commission adopted the California Solar
Initiative. Existing law requires the commission to undertake certain
steps in implementing the California Solar Initiative.
   This bill would make a nonsubstantive change to the law requiring
the commission to undertake certain steps in implementing the
California Solar Initiative.
   Vote: majority. Appropriation: no. Fiscal committee: no.
State-mandated local program: no.


THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA DO ENACT AS FOLLOWS:

  SECTION 1.  Section 2851 of the Public Utilities Code is amended to
read:
   2851.  (a) In implementing the California Solar Initiative, the
commission shall do all of the following:
   (1) (A) The commission shall authorize the award of monetary
incentives for up to the first megawatt of alternating current
generated by solar energy systems that meet the eligibility criteria
established by the Energy Commission pursuant to Chapter 8.8
(commencing with Section 25780) of Division 15 of the Public
Resources Code. The commission shall determine the eligibility of a
solar energy system, as defined in Section 25781 of the Public
Resources Code, to receive monetary incentives until the time the
Energy Commission establishes eligibility criteria pursuant to
Section 25782. Monetary incentives shall not be awarded for solar
energy systems that do not meet the eligibility criteria. The
incentive level authorized by the commission shall decline each year
following implementation of the California Solar Initiative, at a
rate of no less than an average of 7 percent per year, and, except as
provided in subparagraph (B), shall be zero as of December 31, 2016.
The commission shall adopt and publish a schedule of declining
incentive levels no less than 30 days in advance of the first decline
in incentive levels. The commission may develop incentives based
upon the  output of electricity from  
electricity generated by  the system, provided those incentives
are consistent with the declining incentive levels of this paragraph
and the incentives apply to only the first megawatt of electricity
generated by the system.
   (B) The incentive level for the installation of a solar energy
system pursuant to Section 2852 shall be zero as of December 31,
2021.
   (2) The commission shall adopt a performance-based incentive
program so that by January 1, 2008, 100 percent of incentives for
solar energy systems of 100 kilowatts or greater and at least 50
percent of incentives for solar energy systems of 30 kilowatts or
greater are earned based on the actual electrical output of the solar
energy systems. The commission shall encourage, and may require,
performance-based incentives for solar energy systems of less than 30
kilowatts. Performance-based incentives shall decline at a rate of
no less than an average of 7 percent per year. In developing the
performance-based incentives, the commission may:
   (A) Apply performance-based incentives only to customer classes
designated by the commission.
   (B) Design the performance-based incentives so that customers may
receive a higher level of incentives than under incentives based on
installed electrical capacity.
   (C) Develop financing options that help offset the installation
costs of the solar energy system, provided that this financing is
ultimately repaid in full by the consumer or through the application
of the performance-based rebates.
   (3) By January 1, 2008, the commission, in consultation with the
Energy Commission, shall require reasonable and cost-effective energy
efficiency improvements in existing buildings as a condition of
providing incentives for eligible solar energy systems, with
appropriate exemptions or limitations to accommodate the limited
financial resources of low-income residential housing.
   (4) Notwithstanding subdivision (g) of Section 2827, the
commission may develop a time-variant tariff that creates the maximum
incentive for ratepayers to install solar energy systems so that the
system's peak electricity production coincides with California's
peak electricity demands and that ensures that ratepayers receive due
value for their contribution to the purchase of solar energy systems
and customers with solar energy systems continue to have an
incentive to use electricity efficiently. In developing the
time-variant tariff, the commission may exclude customers
participating in the tariff from the rate cap for residential
customers for existing baseline quantities or usage by those
customers of up to 130 percent of existing baseline quantities, as
required by Section 739.9. Nothing in this paragraph authorizes the
commission to require time-variant pricing for ratepayers without a
solar energy system.
   (b) Notwithstanding subdivision (a), in implementing the
California Solar Initiative, the commission may authorize the award
of monetary incentives for solar thermal and solar water heating
devices, in a total amount up to one hundred million eight hundred
thousand dollars ($100,800,000).
   (c) (1) In implementing the California Solar Initiative, the
commission shall not allocate more than fifty million dollars
($50,000,000) to research, development, and demonstration that
explores solar technologies and other distributed generation
technologies that employ or could employ solar energy for generation
or storage of electricity or to offset natural gas usage. Any program
that allocates additional moneys to research, development, and
demonstration shall be developed in collaboration with the Energy
Commission to ensure there is no duplication of efforts, and adopted
by the commission through a rulemaking or other appropriate public
proceeding. Any grant awarded by the commission for research,
development, and demonstration shall be approved by the full
commission at a public meeting. This subdivision does not prohibit
the commission from continuing to allocate moneys to research,
development, and demonstration pursuant to the self-generation
incentive program for distributed generation resources originally
established pursuant to Chapter 329 of the Statutes of 2000, as
modified pursuant to Section 379.6.
   (2) The Legislature finds and declares that a program that
provides a stable source of monetary incentives for eligible solar
energy systems will encourage private investment sufficient to make
solar technologies cost effective.
   (d) (1) The commission shall not impose any charge upon the
consumption of natural gas, or upon natural gas ratepayers, to fund
the California Solar Initiative.
   (2) Notwithstanding any other provision of law, any charge imposed
to fund the program adopted and implemented pursuant to this section
shall be imposed upon all customers not participating in the
California Alternate Rates for Energy (CARE) or family electric rate
assistance (FERA) programs, including those residential customers
subject to the rate limitation specified in Section 739.9 for
existing baseline quantities or usage up to 130 percent of existing
baseline quantities of electricity.
   (3) The costs of the program adopted and implemented pursuant to
this section shall not be recovered from customers participating in
the California Alternate Rates for Energy or CARE program established
pursuant to Section 739.1, except to the extent that program costs
are recovered out of the nonbypassable system benefits charge
authorized pursuant to Section 399.8.
   (e) Except as provided in subdivision (f), in implementing the
California Solar Initiative, the commission shall ensure that the
total cost over the duration of the program does not exceed three
billion five hundred fifty million eight hundred thousand dollars
($3,550,800,000). Except as provided in subdivision (f), financial
components of the California Solar Initiative shall consist of the
following:
   (1) Programs under the supervision of the commission funded by
charges collected from customers of San Diego Gas and Electric
Company, Southern California Edison Company, and Pacific Gas and
Electric Company. Except as provided in subdivision (f), the total
cost over the duration of these programs shall not exceed two billion
three hundred sixty-six million eight hundred thousand dollars
($2,366,800,000) and includes moneys collected directly into a
tracking account for support of the California Solar Initiative.
   (2) Programs adopted, implemented, and financed in the amount of
seven hundred eighty-four million dollars ($784,000,000), by charges
collected by local publicly owned electric utilities pursuant to
Section 2854. Nothing in this subdivision shall give the commission
power and jurisdiction with respect to a local publicly owned
electric utility or its customers.
   (3) (A) Programs for the installation of solar energy systems on
new construction (New Solar Homes Partnership Program), administered
by the Energy Commission, and funded by charges in the amount of four
hundred million dollars ($400,000,000), collected from customers of
San Diego Gas and Electric Company, Southern California Edison
Company, and Pacific Gas and Electric Company. If the commission is
notified by the Energy Commission that funding available pursuant to
Section 25751 of the Public Resources Code for the New Solar Homes
Partnership Program and any other funding for the purposes of this
paragraph have been exhausted, the commission may require an
electrical corporation to continue administration of the program
pursuant to the guidelines established for the program by the Energy
Commission, until the funding limit authorized by this paragraph has
been reached. The commission may determine whether a third party,
including the Energy Commission, should administer the utility's
continuation of the New Solar Homes Partnership Program. The
commission, in consultation with the Energy Commission, shall
supervise the administration of the continuation of the New Solar
Homes Partnership Program by an electrical corporation or third-party
administrator. After the exhaustion of funds, the Energy Commission
shall notify the Joint Legislative Budget Committee 30 days prior to
the continuation of the program. This subparagraph shall become
inoperative on June 1, 2018.
   (B) If the commission requires a continuation of the program
pursuant to subparagraph (A), any funding made available pursuant to
the continuation program shall be encumbered through the issuance of
rebate reservations by no later than June 1, 2018, and disbursed by
no later than December 31, 2021.
   (4) The changes made to this subdivision by Chapter 39 of the
Statutes of 2012 do not authorize the levy of a charge or any
increase in the amount collected pursuant to any existing charge, nor
do the changes add to, or detract from, the commission's existing
authority to levy or increase charges.
   (f) Upon the expenditure or reservation in any electrical
corporation's service territory of the amount specified in paragraph
(1) of subdivision (e) for low-income residential housing programs
pursuant to subdivision (c) of Section 2852, the commission shall
authorize the continued collection of the charge for the purposes of
Section 2852. The commission shall ensure that the total amount
collected pursuant to this subdivision does not exceed one hundred
eight million dollars ($108,000,000). Upon approval by the
commission, an electrical corporation may use amounts collected
pursuant to subdivision (e) for purposes of funding the general
market portion of the California Solar Initiative, that remain
unspent and unencumbered after December 31, 2016, to reduce the
electrical corporation's portion of the total amount collected
pursuant to this subdivision.