Bans discriminatory fees on customer renewable energy systems

Under existing law, the Public Utilities Commission has regulatory authority over public utilities, including electrical corporations, while local publicly owned electric utilities, as defined, are under the direction of their governing boards. 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 establish rules for all public utilities, subject to control by the Legislature.

This bill would require the commission, or the governing board of a local publicly owned electric utility, as applicable, to ensure that customers within its jurisdiction who have customer-sited renewable energy or energy storage systems are not subject to discriminatory fees or charges levied as a result of installing or using those customer-sited renewable energy or energy storage systems, as specified.

Under existing law, a violation of any order, decision, rule, direction, demand, or requirement of the commission is a crime.

Because this bill would require action by the commission to enforce its requirements and a violation of that commission action implementing its requirements would be a crime, this bill would impose a state-mandated local program. Because the bill imposes requirements on the boards of local publicly owned electric utilities, which are entities of local government, 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.