Existing law vests the Public Utilities Commission with regulatory authority over public utilities, including electrical corporations. Existing law authorizes the commission to fix the rates and charges for every public utility, and requires that those rates and charges be just and reasonable. Existing law authorizes the commission to require or authorize an electrical corporation to employ default time-of-use rates to residential customers, subject to specified limitations and conditions. Existing law prohibits a residential customer from being subject to a default time-of-use rate schedule unless that residential customer has been provided with not less than one year of interval usage data from an advanced meter and associated customer education and, following the passage of this period, is provided with no less than one year of bill protection during which the total amount paid by the residential customer for electric service shall not exceed the amount that would have been payable by the residential customer under that customer's previous rate schedule.
This bill would require that the customer be provided with no less than 2 years, instead of one year, of bill protection during which the total amount paid by the residential customer for electric service is prohibited from exceeding the amount that would have been payable by the residential customer under that customer's previous rate schedule.