Existing law requires the State Energy Resources Conservation and Development Commission (Energy Commission) , in consultation with the specified entities, to adopt a biennial integrated energy policy report containing certain information in a specified format. Existing law requires the Energy Commission, in consultation with the Public Utilities Commission (PUC) and the Independent System Operator, to adopt a goal for load shifting to reduce net peak electrical demand and adjust this target in each biennial integrated energy policy report thereafter.
This bill would require the Energy Commission, as part of each integrated energy policy report, to allocate the incremental load shifting needed to reach the above-described load-shifting goal, including biennial adjustments to the goal, to each retail supplier, as defined, based on the relative share of statewide load of each retail supplier, as specified. The bill would require the Energy Commission to establish rules for evaluating the effectiveness of the various load-shifting strategies for the purpose of determining how much credit a retail supplier should get for each type of load flexibility effort it undertakes, as specified.
Existing law requires the PUC 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, among other things, enhance distribution systems and demand-side energy management.
This bill would instead require that load-serving entities meet the incremental load-shifting goal established pursuant to the above-described provisions, to the extent that the goal is cost effective, as specified.
Existing law vests the PUC with regulatory jurisdiction over public utilities, including electrical corporations, while local publicly owned electric utilities are under the direction of their governing board.
This bill would require all retail suppliers, as defined, to provide rate information to the Energy Commission's Market-Informed Demand Automation Server in order to provide third-party devices with access to real-time rate information for the purpose of efficiently automating load flexibility. The bill would require the commission, on or before January 1, 2028, to require all load-serving entities to offer optional dynamic pricing tariffs, as specified, and the governing boards of each local publicly owned electric utility to consider offering dynamic pricing tariffs, as specified. The bill would require the commission, as part of a new or existing proceeding, to consider (1) whether larger differentials between peak and off-peak time-of-use periods, including larger differentials for the transmission and distribution portion of rates, would be a cost-effective way to address peak load, and (2) whether distinguishing between nighttime off-peak and daytime off-peak periods would be a cost-effective way to align flexible load with periods of abundant renewable and zero-carbon energy.
Under existing law, a violation of the Public Utilities Act or any order, decision, rule, direction, demand, or requirement of the PUC is a crime.
Because certain provisions of this bill would be part of the act and a violation of a PUC action implementing the bill's requirements would be a crime, the bill would impose a state-mandated local program.
Additionally, by imposing new duties on local publicly owned electric utilities, 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.

Statutes affected:
SB 541: 25545 PRC
02/20/25 - Introduced: 25545 PRC
03/24/25 - Amended Senate: 25302.7 PRC, 25302.7 PRC, 454.52 PUC, 454.52 PUC, 25545 PRC