Existing law vests the Public Utilities Commission 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 a utility, which includes a community choice aggregator, an electrical corporation, and a local publicly owned electric utility, to develop and implement a system to notify a ratepayer of a power surge, as defined. The bill would require the notification to be transmitted within 5 minutes of detecting a power surge and to include specified information. The bill would also require a preemptive warning of a power surge, as provided, under specified circumstances. The bill would require a utility to install and maintain equipment capable of detecting power surges and to submit quarterly reports to the commission regarding power surges, as provided. The bill would require a utility to compensate a ratepayer for damages to electrical systems, appliances, or devices caused by a power surge if the power surge resulted from utility equipment failure or negligence, to process claims for compensation within 30 days of receipt, and to offer financial incentives or rebates for the installation of whole-house surge protection systems by ratepayers.
The bill would require the commission to adopt rules and regulations to implement these requirements and monitor compliance, authorize the commission to impose penalties for the failure to comply, and require the commission to submit a report to the Legislature by January 1 of each year regarding the implementation and effectiveness of power surge notifications and the impact of these requirements on reducing damages from power surges. The bill would require each utility to submit an implementation plan to the commission within 6 months of the effective date of the bill and to fully implement these requirements within 18 months of the effective date, and would authorize a utility to apply to the commission for approval to recover reasonable costs associated with complying with these requirements through rate adjustments.
Under existing law, a violation of any order, decision, rule, direction, demand, or requirement of the commission is a crime.
Because a violation of a commission action implementing this 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.
This bill would declare that it is to take effect immediately as an urgency statute.