Official Summary Text
AB 2175, as amended, Garcia.
Electrical corporations: definition: electrical and gas service: microgrids.
Renewable electrical generation facilities: multiple meters: aggregation: logistics businesses and manufacturing businesses.
Existing law vests the Public Utilities Commission
(PUC)
with regulatory authority over public utilities, including electrical corporations.
Existing law defines “electrical corporation,” for purposes of the Public Utilities Act, to include every corporation or person owning, controlling, operating, or managing any electric plant for compensation within this state, except as provided.
Existing law requires each electrical corporation, local publicly owned electric utility, or electrical cooperative, or any other entity that offers electrical service, except as provided, to develop a standard contract or tariff providing for net energy
metering, and to make this standard contract or tariff available to eligible customer-generators using renewable electrical generation facilities, as specified. Pursuant to its authority, the commission issued a decision revising net energy metering tariff and subtariffs, commonly known as the net billing tariff. Existing law authorizes an eligible customer-generator with multiple meters to aggregate the electrical load of the meters located on the property where the renewable electrical generation facility is located and on all property adjacent or contiguous to the property on which the renewable electrical generation facility is located, if those properties are solely owned, leased, or rented by the eligible customer-generator, as provided.
This bill would revise and recast the definition of “electrical corporation” to, among other things, eliminate certain existing exceptions to the definition of “electrical corporation,” thereby expanding the scope of that term and the entities over which the PUC has regulatory authority. The bill would additionally exempt from that definition a corporation or person employing one
or more distributed energy resources, as defined, that has the capacity to be coupled with one or more energy storage systems for the generation of electricity primarily for specified uses. The bill would also exempt from the definition of “electrical corporation” a microgrid, as defined, that primarily serves the included load of the microgrid, as provided. The bill would also make various conforming changes.
This bill would authorize the State Energy Resources Conservation and Development Commission (Energy Commission) to develop safety standards for microgrids and to issue optional guidelines for the governance and oversight of microgrids to local governments, as provided. The bill would provide that a microgrid is not subject to the jurisdiction of the PUC with respect to rates, operations, or safety, but would require the PUC to retain jurisdiction over the interconnection of a microgrid to the distribution system of a large electrical corporation, as
specified.
Existing law requires the PUC to require each residential unit in an apartment house or similar multiunit residential structure, condominium, or mobilehome park issued a building permit on or after July 1, 1982, with certain exceptions, to be individually metered for electrical and gas service.
This bill would additionally except from that requirement an accessory dwelling unit, as defined, if the owner of the property on which the accessory dwelling unit is located elects to have the accessory dwelling unit’s electrical and gas services metered through existing or upgraded utility meters located on that property, and any new, significantly altered, or converted multiunit residential structure,
condominium, or mobilehome park for which a building permit has been obtained on or after January 1, 2026, that includes the installation of a distributed energy system that is meant to offset all or a portion of the tenants’ usage, as provided.
This bill would require the commission, for purposes of certain net energy metering contracts or tariffs, to ensure that logistics businesses and manufacturing businesses are eligible customer-generators for purposes of aggregating multiple meters, as described above, if the commission extends the application of that provision.
Under existing law, a violation of the Public Utilities Act or any order, decision, rule, direction, demand, or requirement of the
PUC
commission
is a crime.
Because certain of the above provisions would be part of the act and a violation of a
PUC
commission
action implementing this bill’s requirements would be a crime, 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 a specified reason.