20250AB__236996AMD INTRODUCED 2026-02-19 AMENDED_ASSEMBLY 2026-03-19 AMENDED_ASSEMBLY 2026-04-27 AMENDED_ASSEMBLY 2026-05-18 2025 AB AMD Introduced by Assembly Member Rogers LEAD_AUTHOR ASSEMBLY Rogers

An act to amend

Section 454.57 of the Public Utilities Code, relating to public utilities. public utilities Electricity: energy storage: energy-only resources. Existing law vests the Public Utilities Commission (PUC) with regulatory authority over public utilities, including electrical corporations.

Existing law requires each electrical corporation, electric service provider, and community choice aggregator to maintain physical generating capacity and electrical demand response adequate to meet its load requirements, and requires that the generating capacity or electrical demand response be deliverable to locations and at times as may be necessary to maintain electrical service system reliability, local area reliability, and flexibility.</xhtml:p><xhtml:p>This bill would additionally require each electrical corporation, electric service provider, and community choice aggregator to maintain energy storage adequate to meet its load requirements, as provided.</xhtml:p>"?> 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 (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, as specified, to allow the ISO to identify and approve transmission facilities needed to interconnect resources and reliably serve the needs of load centers.

In providing that guidance, existing law requires the PUC and the Energy Commission to annually provide projections to support the Independent System Operator’s planning and approvals in its annual transmission planning process, as provided. This bill would require the PUC and Energy Commission, as part of providing those projections, to also identify cost-effective opportunities to increase the reliability contribution or mitigate congestion of planned or existing energy-only resources through transmission capacity expansions.

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.</xhtml:p><xhtml:p>Because the provisions of this bill would be a part of the act and a violation of a PUC action implementing its requirements would be a crime, the bill would impose a state-mandated local program.</xhtml:p><xhtml:p>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.</xhtml:p><xhtml:p>This bill would provide that no reimbursement is required by this act for a specified reason.</xhtml:p>"?> MAJORITY NO YES NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO The people of the State of California do enact as follows: <caml:Num>SECTION 1.</caml:Num><caml:ActionLine action="IS_AMENDED" xlink:href="urn:caml:codes:PUC:caml#xpointer(%2Fcaml%3ALawDoc%2Fcaml%3ACode%2Fcaml%3ALawHeading%5B%40type%3D'DIVISION'%20and%20caml%3ANum%3D'1.'%5D%2Fcaml%3ALawHeading%5B%40type%3D'PART'%20and%20caml%3ANum%3D'1.'%5D%2Fcaml%3ALawHeading%5B%40type%3D'CHAPTER'%20and%20caml%3ANum%3D'2.3.'%5D%2Fcaml%3ALawHeading%5B%40type%3D'ARTICLE'%20and%20caml%3ANum%3D'6.'%5D%2Fcaml%3ALawSection%5Bcaml%3ANum%3D'380.'%5D)" xlink:label="fractionType: LAW_SECTION" xlink:type="locator">Section of the <caml:DocName>Public Utilities Code</caml:DocName> is amended to read:</caml:ActionLine><caml:Fragment><caml:LawSection id="id_40D61A07-8279-4FBB-AD0F-041C4E047F52"><caml:Num>380.</caml:Num><caml:LawSectionVersion id="id_483AC060-CF8F-45B3-86B7-F8551252081A"><caml:Content><xhtml:p>(a)<xhtml:span class="EnSpace"/>The commission, in consultation with the Independent System Operator, shall establish resource adequacy requirements for all load-serving entities.</xhtml:p><xhtml:p>(b)<xhtml:span class="EnSpace"/>In establishing resource adequacy requirements, the commission shall ensure the reliability of electrical service in the state while advancing, to the extent possible, the state’s goals for clean energy, reducing air pollution, and reducing emissions of greenhouse gases.

The resource adequacy program shall achieve all of the following objectives:</xhtml:p><xhtml:p>(1)<xhtml:span class="EnSpace"/>Facilitate the development of new generating, nongenerating, and hybrid capacity and the retention of existing generating, nongenerating, and hybrid capacity that is economical and needed for reliability and to achieve the state policy specified in

Section 454.53.</xhtml:p><xhtml:p>(2)<xhtml:span class="EnSpace"/>Establish new, or maintain existing, demand response products and tariffs that facilitate the economical dispatch and use of demand response that can either meet or reduce an electrical corporation’s resource adequacy requirements, as determined by the commission.</xhtml:p><xhtml:p>(3)<xhtml:span class="EnSpace"/>Equitably allocate the cost of generating capacity and demand response in a manner that prevents the shifting of costs between customer classes.</xhtml:p><xhtml:p>(4)<xhtml:span class="EnSpace"/>Minimize enforcement requirements and costs.</xhtml:p><xhtml:p>(5)<xhtml:span class="EnSpace"/>Consideration of mitigation measures, if the commission determines they are needed, to reduce costs to ratepayers.</xhtml:p><xhtml:p>(6)<xhtml:span class="EnSpace"/>Maximize the ability of community choice aggregators to determine the generation resources used to serve their customers.</xhtml:p><xhtml:p>(c)<xhtml:span class="EnSpace"/>Each load-serving entity shall maintain physical generating capacity, energy storage, and electrical demand response adequate to meet its load requirements, including, but not limited to, peak demand and planning and operating reserves.

The generating capacity or electrical demand response shall be deliverable to locations and at times as may be necessary to maintain electrical service system reliability, local area reliability, and flexibility.</xhtml:p><xhtml:p>(d)<xhtml:span class="EnSpace"/>Each load-serving entity shall, at a minimum, meet the most recent minimum planning reserve and reliability criteria approved by the board of directors of the Western Systems Coordinating Council or the Western Electricity Coordinating Council.</xhtml:p><xhtml:p>(e)<xhtml:span class="EnSpace"/>The commission shall implement and enforce the resource adequacy requirements established in accordance with this

section in a nondiscriminatory manner. Each load-serving entity shall be subject to the same requirements for resource adequacy, the renewables portfolio standard program, and the integrated resource planning process pursuant to

Section 454.52 that apply to electrical corporations pursuant to this section, or are otherwise required by law or by order or decision of the commission.

The commission shall exercise its enforcement powers to ensure compliance by all load-serving entities.</xhtml:p><xhtml:p>(f)<xhtml:span class="EnSpace"/>(1)<xhtml:span class="EnSpace"/>The commission shall require sufficient information, including, but not limited to, anticipated load, actual load, and measures undertaken by a load-serving entity to ensure resource adequacy, to be reported to enable the commission to determine compliance with the resource adequacy requirements established by the commission.</xhtml:p><xhtml:p>(2)<xhtml:span class="EnSpace"/>The commission shall calculate and publish annually on its internet website, in a new report or as part of another report, the percentage of each load-serving entity’s local and system resource adequacy requirements from the previous calendar year that was met with capacity from eligible renewable energy resources pursuant to the California Renewables Portfolio Standard Program (Article 16 (commencing with

Section 399.11)), other zero-carbon resources, including large hydroelectric and nuclear resources, or energy storage resources.

In determining the percentage of each load-serving entity’s resource adequacy requirements, the commission shall include all directly owned or contracted resources and each load-serving entity’s allocation of any centrally procured resources or allocation of resources pursuant to any other mechanism that involves an assignment or allocation of resources purchased or owned by a single buyer, and shall exclude any share of a load-serving entity’s resources that were allocated to another load-serving entity.</xhtml:p><xhtml:p>(g)<xhtml:span class="EnSpace"/>An electrical corporation’s costs of meeting or reducing resource adequacy requirements, including, but not limited to, the costs associated with system reliability, local area reliability, or flexible resource adequacy, that are determined to be reasonable by the commission, or are otherwise recoverable under a procurement plan approved by the commission pursuant to

Section 454.5, shall be fully recoverable from those customers on whose behalf the costs are incurred, as determined by the commission, at the time the commitment to incur the cost is made, on a fully nonbypassable basis, as determined by the commission. The commission shall exclude any amounts authorized to be recovered pursuant to

Section 366.2 when authorizing the amount of costs to be recovered from customers of a community choice aggregator or from customers that purchase electricity through a direct transaction pursuant to this subdivision.</xhtml:p><xhtml:p>(h)<xhtml:span class="EnSpace"/>The commission shall determine and authorize the most efficient and equitable means for achieving all of the following:</xhtml:p><xhtml:p>(1)<xhtml:span class="EnSpace"/>Meeting the objectives of this section.</xhtml:p><xhtml:p>(2)<xhtml:span class="EnSpace"/>Ensuring that investment is made in new generating capacity.</xhtml:p><xhtml:p>(3)<xhtml:span class="EnSpace"/>Ensuring that existing generating capacity that is economical is retained to ensure reliability.</xhtml:p><xhtml:p>(4)<xhtml:span class="EnSpace"/>Ensuring that the resource adequacy program can reasonably maintain a standard measure of reliability, such as a one-day-in-10-year loss-of-load expectation or a similarly robust reliability metric adopted by the commission, and use it for planning purposes.</xhtml:p><xhtml:p>(5)<xhtml:span class="EnSpace"/>Ensuring that the cost of generating capacity and demand response is allocated equitably.</xhtml:p><xhtml:p>(6)<xhtml:span class="EnSpace"/>Ensuring that community choice aggregators can determine the generation resources used to serve their customers.</xhtml:p><xhtml:p>(7)<xhtml:span class="EnSpace"/>Ensuring that investments are made in new and existing demand response resources that are cost effective and help to achieve electrical grid reliability and the state’s goals for reducing emissions of greenhouse gases.</xhtml:p><xhtml:p>(8)<xhtml:span class="EnSpace"/>Minimizing the need for backstop procurement by the Independent System Operator.</xhtml:p><xhtml:p>(i)<xhtml:span class="EnSpace"/>In making the determination pursuant to subdivision (h), the commission may consider a centralized resource adequacy mechanism among other options.</xhtml:p><xhtml:p>(j)<xhtml:span class="EnSpace"/>The commission shall ensure appropriate valuation of both supply and load modifying demand response resources.

The commission, in an existing or new proceeding, shall establish a mechanism to value load modifying demand response resources, including, but not limited to, the ability of demand response resources to help meet distribution needs and transmission system needs and to help reduce a load-serving entity’s resource adequacy obligation pursuant to this section. In determining this value, the commission shall consider how these resources further the state’s electrical grid reliability and the state’s goals for reducing emissions of greenhouse gases.

The commission, Energy Commission, and Independent System Operator shall coordinate to jointly ensure that changes in demand caused by load modifying demand response are expeditiously and comprehensively reflected in the Energy Commission’s Integrated Energy Policy Report forecast and in planning proceedings and associated analyses, and shall encourage reflection of these changes in demand in the operation of the grid.</xhtml:p><xhtml:p>(k)<xhtml:span class="EnSpace"/>For purposes of this section, “load-serving entity” means an electrical corporation, electric service provider, or community choice aggregator. “Load-serving entity” does not include any of the following:</xhtml:p><xhtml:p>(1)<xhtml:span class="EnSpace"/>A local publicly owned electric utility.</xhtml:p><xhtml:p>(2)<xhtml:span class="EnSpace"/>The State Water Resources Development System commonly known as the State Water Project.</xhtml:p><xhtml:p>(3)<xhtml:span class="EnSpace"/>Customer generation located on the customer’s site or providing electrical service through arrangements authorized by

Section 218, if the customer generation, or the load it serves, meets one of the following criteria:</xhtml:p><xhtml:p>(A)<xhtml:span class="EnSpace"/>It takes standby service from the electrical corporation on a commission-approved rate

schedule that provides for adequate backup planning and operating reserves for the standby customer class.</xhtml:p><xhtml:p>(B)<xhtml:span class="EnSpace"/>It is not physically interconnected to the electrical transmission or distribution grid, so that, if the customer generation fails, backup electricity is not supplied from the electrical grid.</xhtml:p><xhtml:p>(C)<xhtml:span class="EnSpace"/>There is physical assurance that the load served by the customer generation will be curtailed concurrently and commensurately with an outage of the customer generation.</xhtml:p></caml:Content></caml:LawSectionVersion></caml:LawSection></caml:Fragment></caml:BillSection>"?>

SECTION

Section 454.57 of the Public Utilities Code is amended to read: 454.57. (

a) This

section shall be known, and may be cited, as the Accelerating Renewable Energy Delivery Act. (

b) The Legislature finds and declares all of the following:

(1) The commission, the Energy Commission, and the State Air Resources Board have jointly estimated that the state’s installed electrical generation may need a threefold increase in capacity to meet state carbon-free electricity policy targets.

(2) Record-setting renewable energy generation build rates are needed to meet the goals of the California Renewables Portfolio Standard Program and the Senate Bill 100 (Chapter of the Statutes of 2018) target of supplying percent of retail sales of electricity from renewable energy resources and zero-carbon resources. However, these build rates are not achievable without additional electrical transmission lines and facilities connecting new resources to consumers in the state’s load centers.

(3) In recent years, California has seen problems in delivering renewable energy resources and zero-carbon resources to customers, including problems caused by constraints on the transmission system. First, there are generation pockets where the total potential output from renewable energy generation exceeds the capacity of the transmission system to export that energy. Second, there are load pockets where there is insufficient transmission capacity to import the renewable energy resources and zero-carbon resources that are available. Both types of constraints should be promptly fixed so that all available renewable energy resources and zero-carbon resources can be delivered to customers.

(4) Reducing the use of nonpreferred resources in disadvantaged communities has been a priority for those communities, and they would benefit from increased access to electricity from new renewable energy resources and zero-carbon resources delivered to serve in-city loads.

(5) New transmission facilities have many steps that must be accomplished before they are online and delivering electricity. Major new transmission lines can take more than a decade from initial planning to operation.

(6) New transmission facilities should be planned proactively to support delivery to load centers from expected locations for future renewable energy resource and zero-carbon resource development, where those locations are identified in the integrated resource planning process pursuant to Sections 454.52 and or as part of longer range planning processes pursuant to

Section 454.53.

(7) New transmission facilities should be designed to minimize the risk of transmission-triggered wildfires.

(8) New transmission facilities should be designed to facilitate renewable energy transmission across California to better manage the variability of the electrical supply.

(9) The Independent System Operator has issued a 20-Year Transmission Outlook that identifies substantial additional transmission projects needed to integrate renewable energy resources and storage for retail suppliers within the Independent System Operator balancing authority. Given the scale of this challenge, there is an urgent need to prioritize and accelerate the substantial effort needed to build transmission projects with long development times. (

c) Recognizing that the Independent System Operator’s Federal Energy Regulatory Commission-approved tariff requires the Independent System Operator to plan and approve new transmission facilities needed to achieve the state’s goals, it is the intent of the Legislature that the Independent System Operator shall take notice of the state policies expressed in this section. (

d) In support of the state’s policy to supply increasing amounts of electricity from renewable energy resources and zero-carbon resources pursuant to

Article 16 (commencing with

Section 399.11) of

Chapter 2.3 and

Section 454.53, beginning as soon as possible and not later than March 31, 2024, the commission, in consultation with the Energy Commission, shall provide transmission-focused guidance to the Independent System Operator about resource portfolios of expected future renewable energy resources and zero-carbon resources. The guidance shall include the allocation of those resources by region based on technical feasibility and commercial interest in each region to allow the Independent System Operator to identify and approve transmission facilities needed to interconnect resources and reliably serve the needs of load centers. (

e) In providing the guidance described in subdivision (d), the commission and the Energy Commission shall provide projections each year, including from the integrated energy policy report prepared pursuant to

Section of the Public Resources Code and the load-serving entities’ integrated resource plans prepared pursuant to

Section 454.52, to support planning and approvals by the Independent System Operator in its annual transmission planning process, including by doing all of the following:

(1) Providing projections of resource portfolios and electricity demand by region for at least years into the future to ensure adequate lead time for the Independent System Operator to analyze and approve transmission development, and for the permitting and construction of the approved facilities, to meet the projections.

(2) Providing load growth projections, including projected growth from building and transportation electrification, that are consistent with achieving the economywide greenhouse gas emissions reductions required pursuant to the California Global Warming Solutions Act of 2006 (Division 25.5 (commencing with

Section 38500) of the Health and Safety Code).

(3) Providing projections of new renewable energy resources and zero-carbon resources consistent with the build rates necessary to achieve the targets established in

Article 16 (commencing with

Section 399.11) of

Chapter 2.3 and

Section 454.53. (4) (

A) Providing resource projections that, combined with transmission capacity expansions, are expected to substantially reduce, no later than 2035, the need to rely on nonpreferred resources in local capacity areas. (

B) The resource projections in subparagraph (

A) shall include consideration of cost-effective and feasible alternatives to transmission capacity expansions, including the use of energy storage resources, renewable energy resources, or zero-carbon resources that are located within the local capacity areas.

(5) Providing projections for offshore wind generation as identified by the SB Joint Agency Report of the commission, the Energy Commission, and the State Air Resources Board, and informed by the strategic plan developed pursuant to

Section of the Public Resources Code, to allow the Independent System Operator to identify and approve transmission facilities needed from offshore wind resource areas that would be sufficient to make offshore wind resources fully deliverable to load centers.

(6) Providing projections for increases in imports of electricity into the state that reflect the expected development of renewable energy resources and zero-carbon resources in other parts of the Western Interconnection for the purpose of delivering clean energy to California balancing authorities.

(7) Identifying cost-effective opportunities to increase the reliability contribution or mitigate congestion of planned or existing energy-only resources through transmission capacity expansions. (f)<xhtml:span class="EnSpace"/>On or before January 1, 2029, the commission, in consultation with the Independent System Operator, shall develop a methodology for evaluating the contribution of energy-only resources to provide charging sufficiency for energy storage.

The methodology shall be informed by the Independent System Operator’s 2026–27 transmission planning process, including its study of whether the transmission system will be more reliable with energy-only resources used to charge energy storage.</xhtml:p><xhtml:p>(g)</xhtml:p>"?> (

f) On or before January 15, 2023, the commission shall request the Independent System Operator to do both of the following:

(1) Identify, based as much as possible on studies completed before January 1, 2023, by the Independent System Operator and projections provided before January 1, 2023, by the commission and the Energy Commission, the highest priority transmission facilities that are needed to allow for increased transmission capacity into local capacity areas to deliver renewable energy resources or zero-carbon resources that are expected to be developed by into those areas.

(2) Consider whether to approve transmission projects identified pursuant to paragraph (1) as part of its 2022–23 transmission planning process. (h)</xhtml:p>"?> (

g) It is the policy of the state that new transmission facilities be built on a timely basis and in anticipation of new electrical generation that will be built to meet the state’s renewable energy resource and zero-carbon resource targets, with interim targets for transmission capacity additions that demonstrate adequate progress toward meeting these long-term transmission needs. The commission shall request that the Independent System Operator implement this policy by approving transmission projects needed based on a longer planning period supported by the guidance provided pursuant to subdivisions (

d) and (e). The projects should be approved in time to be online when needed, considering permitting and construction lead times. (i)</xhtml:p>"?> (

h) It is the policy of the state that planning for new transmission facilities considers the following goals:

(1) Minimizing the risk of wildfire.

(2) Increasing systemwide reliability and cost efficiency, including through the sharing of diverse electrical generation resources within California and with other parts of the Western Interconnection.

(3) Eliminating transmission constraints that prevent electrical generation resources from delivering to the wider electrical grid and that prevent importing energy into load pockets. (j)</xhtml:p>"?> (

i) For purposes of this section, both of the following

definitions apply: (1) “Local capacity area” means a transmission constrained load pocket, as identified by the Independent System Operator, where local generation capacity is needed for reliability due to insufficient transmission capacity into the load pocket to meet electricity demand with electricity from outside of the load pocket. (2) “Nonpreferred resources” means electrical generation resources that are not renewable energy resources or zero-carbon resources pursuant to

Section 454.53. <caml:Num>SEC. 3.</caml:Num><caml:Content><xhtml:p>No reimbursement is required by this act pursuant to

Section of

Article XIII<xhtml:span class="ThinSpace"/>B of the California Constitution because the only costs that may be incurred by a local agency or school district will be incurred because this act creates a new crime or infraction, eliminates a crime or infraction, or changes the penalty for a crime or infraction, within the meaning of

Section of the Government Code, or changes the definition of a crime within the meaning of

Section of

Article XIII<xhtml:span class="ThinSpace"/>B of the California Constitution.</xhtml:p></caml:Content></caml:BillSection>"?>