Plain English Breakdown
The source text mentions 'automated mass replacement' but does not define what this process entails or which specific programs will be replaced.
Sharing Power Outage Data to Help Disaster Food Aid
This law requires electric companies and local utilities to share data about power outages lasting four hours or longer so the state can better provide food assistance after a major disaster.
What This Bill Does
- Authorizes regulators and utility boards to create agreements directing electrical corporations and local publicly owned electric utilities to timely provide outage data to the Department of Social Services.
- Requires these utilities to make a reasonable effort to share aggregated customer outage data for outages lasting four hours or longer within seven calendar days of a request from the department.
- Mandates that utilities designate a point of contact person to handle requests for this data from the department.
- Requires the Public Utilities Commission to provide technical assistance to the department, including help with writing reports on food assistance.
- Directs the department to use utility outage data to maximize D-SNAP and other federally funded nutrition assistance benefits during disasters.
Who It Names or Affects
- Electrical corporations regulated by the Public Utilities Commission.
- Local publicly owned electric utilities managed by their governing boards.
- The California Department of Social Services.
- Families eligible for disaster food assistance programs like D-SNAP.
Terms To Know
- D-SNAP
- Disaster Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, which provides short-term food aid to families affected by major disasters.
- Aggregated customer outage data
- Combined information about power outages that does not reveal the names or private details of individual customers.
- Memoranda of understanding
- Written agreements between groups, such as regulators and utility companies, to work together on specific tasks like sharing data.
Limits and Unknowns
- The law requires utilities to make a 'reasonable effort' to provide data but does not specify exact penalties for failure beyond existing rules regarding commission orders.
- The bill states that no state reimbursement is required for local agencies, though it lists specified reasons without detailing them in the summary text.
- The specific methods for how the department will use outage data to achieve 'automated mass replacement' of nutrition assistance programs are described generally rather than step-by-step.