Electricity: transmission planning and transmission facilities.

(1) Existing law requires the Public Utilities Commission (PUC) , in consultation with the State Energy Resources Conservation and Development Commission (Energy Commission) , to provide transmission-focused guidance to the Independent System Operator (ISO) about resource portfolios of expected future renewable energy resources and zero-carbon resources, including the allocation of those resources by region based on technical feasibility and commercial interest in each region to allow the ISO to identify and approve transmission facilities needed to interconnect resources and reliably serve the needs of load centers, as specified. On December 23, 2022, the PUC, the Energy Commission, and the ISO entered into a memorandum of understanding related to resource and transmission planning, transmission development and permitting, procurement, and interconnections to achieve reliability and policy needs and to coordinate the timely development of resources, resource interconnections, and needed transmission infrastructure. Existing law requires the Energy Commission and the PUC, in coordination with the ISO, every 5 years, to review the memorandum of understanding and a related workplan to ensure the memorandum and workplan reflect the coordination that is needed to help meet the state's energy goals. This bill would require those entities, on or before January 1, 2028, to incorporate into an update any revisions as may be necessary to ensure that the memorandum and workplan reflect the requirements of Federal Energy Regulatory Commission Order 1920-A, including methods to evaluate resource portfolios that reflect the best available methods of decisionmaking under uncertainty. (2) Existing law vests the PUC with regulatory authority over public utilities, including electrical corporations. Existing law requires the PUC to identify a diverse and balanced portfolio of resources needed to ensure a reliable electricity supply that provides optimal integration of renewable energy and resource diversity in a cost-effective manner, as specified. This bill would require that the portfolio provide optimal integration in a cost-effective manner that maintains ratepayer affordability across a range of future uncertainties, as specified. (3) Existing law establishes the ISO as a nonprofit, public benefit corporation to ensure efficient use and reliable operation of the transmission grid and to manage the transmission grid and related energy markets, as provided. Existing law requires the PUC, in consultation with the Energy Commission, to provide transmission-focused guidance to the ISO about resource portfolios, as specified. This bill would require the PUC, before approving the procurement of certain resources, to complete a transmission and interconnection availability assessment and to confirm there is sufficient infrastructure in the last approved transmission plan from the ISO to support the cost-effective procurement of approved resources by load-serving entities, as specified. (4) Existing law requires the PUC, in consultation with the Energy Commission, to provide transmission-focused guidance to the ISO about resource portfolios of expected future renewable energy resources and zero-carbon resources, as specified, to allow the ISO to identify and approve transmission facilities needed to interconnect resources and reliably serve the needs of load centers. Existing law requires the guidance to include projections each year to support planning and approvals by the ISO in its annual transmission planning process, including projections of resource portfolios and electricity demand by region for at least 15 years into the future, as specified. Existing law expresses the state policy that planning for new transmission facilities include consideration of the goal of increasing systemwide reliability and cost efficiency, among other state policy goals. This bill would require the PUC, in consultation with the Energy Commission, when evaluating resource portfolios for submission to the ISO's transmission planning process, to submit at least one resource portfolio that is adaptable and low risk in maintaining ratepayer affordability across a range of future uncertainties, as provided. The bill would remove the annual requirement for the projections and would require the projections of resource portfolios and electricity demand by region to be for at least 20, rather than 15, years into the future. The bill would add to those state policy goals increasing systemwide adaptability and maintaining ratepayer affordability across a range of future uncertainties, as specified. The bill would also require the PUC, beginning on or before January 1, 2028, to make available on its internet website all nonconfidential input and output data used in the integrated resource planning and transmission planning processes, as specified. (5) Under existing law, a violation of the Public Utilities Act or any order, decision, rule, direction, demand, or requirement of the PUC is a crime. Because certain provisions of this bill would be a part of the act and because a violation of a PUC action implementing its requirements would be a crime, the bill would impose a state-mandated local program by creating a new crime. 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.