Official Summary Text
AB 710, as amended, Irwin.
Local publicly owned electric utilities: advanced metering infrastructure.
Electrical corporations: microgrid projects.
Existing law vests the Public Utilities Commission (PUC) with regulatory authority over public utilities, including electrical corporations. Existing law requires the PUC, in consultation with the State Energy Resources Conservation and Development Commission and the Independent System Operator, to take specified actions to facilitate the commercialization of microgrids for distribution customers of large electrical corporations, including developing microgrid service standards necessary to meet state and local permitting requirements and developing methods to reduce barriers for microgrid deployment without shifting costs between ratepayers.
This bill would require a large electrical corporation, upon request, to collaborate with local
governments, tribal governments, or community choice aggregators within its service area to identify critical circuits and microgrid projects. The bill would require large electrical corporations to provide local governments, tribal governments, and community choice aggregators with electrical distribution equipment data, transmission and distribution circuit data, grid hardening plans, and other information requested by those entities to ensure that they are able to plan and develop microgrid projects collaboratively with the large electrical corporations. If a local government, tribal government, or community choice aggregator requests information relating to individual customers, customers’ personal information, or customers’ locations, the bill would require the large electrical corporation to provide the information on a confidential basis, and would require the local government, tribal government, or community choice aggregator to not use the information for any other purpose than planning and
developing microgrid projects. The bill would require a local government, tribal government, or community choice aggregator that requests and accepts data to maintain the confidentiality of any information designated as confidential by the large electrical corporation.
The bill would also include findings that changes proposed by this bill address a matter of statewide concern rather than a municipal affair and, therefore, apply to all cities, including charter cities.
Existing constitutional provisions require that a statute that limits the right of access to the meetings of public bodies or the writings of public officials and agencies be adopted with findings
demonstrating the interest protected by the limitation and the need for protecting that interest.
This bill would make legislative findings to that effect.
Under existing law, a violation of any order, decision, rule, direction, demand, or requirement of the PUC is a crime.
Because the violation of a PUC action implementing the bill’s requirements would be a crime, this 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.
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 boards. Existing law prohibits a local publicly owned electric utility from sharing, disclosing, or otherwise making accessible to any third party, or selling, data about a customer’s electrical usage that is made available as part of an advanced metering infrastructure, except as specified. Existing law requires a local publicly owned electric utility
that utilizes an advanced metering infrastructure that allows a customer to access their data to ensure that the customer has an option to access that data without being required to agree to the sharing of the customer’s personally identifiable information, including that data, with a third party.
This bill would require the governing board of each local publicly owned electric utility, on or before January 1, 2028, to analyze the feasibility of deploying advanced metering infrastructure to all customers. Based on that analysis, the bill would require the governing board of each local publicly owned electric utility, on or before January 1, 2029, to develop a plan for complete advanced metering infrastructure deployment, where feasible.
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 a specified reason.