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Article 1. General Provisions And Definitions of California Public Utilities Code >> Division 1. >> Part 1. >> Chapter 2.3. >> Article 1.

In order to provide guidance in carrying out this chapter, the Legislature finds and declares all of the following:
  (a) It is the intent of the Legislature that a cumulative rate reduction of at least 20 percent be achieved not later than April 1, 2002, for residential and small commercial customers, from the rates in effect on June 10, 1996. In determining that the April 1, 2002, rate reduction has been met, the commission shall exclude the costs of the competitively procured electricity and the costs associated with the rate reduction bonds, as defined in Section 840.
  (b) The people, businesses, and institutions of California spend nearly twenty-three billion dollars ($23,000,000,000) annually on electricity, so that reductions in the price of electricity would significantly benefit the economy of the state and its residents.
  (c) The Public Utilities Commission has opened rulemaking and investigation proceedings with regard to restructuring California's electric power industry and reforming utility regulation.
  (d) The commission has found, after an extensive public review process, that the interests of ratepayers and the state as a whole will be best served by moving from the regulatory framework existing on January 1, 1997, in which retail electricity service is provided principally by electrical corporations subject to an obligation to provide ultimate consumers in exclusive service territories with reliable electric service at regulated rates, to a framework under which competition would be allowed in the supply of electric power and customers would be allowed to have the right to choose their supplier of electric power.
  (e) Competition in the electric generation market will encourage innovation, efficiency, and better service from all market participants, and will permit the reduction of costly regulatory oversight.
  (f) The delivery of electricity over transmission and distribution systems is currently regulated, and will continue to be regulated to ensure system safety, reliability, environmental protection, and fair access for all market participants.
  (g) Reliable electric service is of utmost importance to the safety, health, and welfare of the state's citizenry and economy. It is the intent of the Legislature that electric industry restructuring should enhance the reliability of the interconnected regional transmission systems, and provide strong coordination and enforceable protocols for all users of the power grid.
  (h) It is important that sufficient supplies of electric generation will be available to maintain the reliable service to the citizens and businesses of the state.
  (i) Reliable electric service depends on conscientious inspection and maintenance of transmission and distribution systems. To continue and enhance the reliability of the delivery of electricity, the Independent System Operator and the commission, respectively, should set inspection, maintenance, repair, and replacement standards.
  (j) It is the intent of the Legislature that California enter into a compact with western region states. That compact should require the publicly and investor-owned utilities located in those states, that sell energy to California retail customers, to adhere to enforceable standards and protocols to protect the reliability of the interconnected regional transmission and distribution systems.
  (k) In order to achieve meaningful wholesale and retail competition in the electric generation market, it is essential to do all of the following:
  (1) Separate monopoly utility transmission functions from competitive generation functions, through development of independent, third-party control of transmission access and pricing.
  (2) Permit all customers to choose from among competing suppliers of electric power.
  (3) Provide customers and suppliers with open, nondiscriminatory, and comparable access to transmission and distribution services.
  (l) The commission has properly concluded that:
  (1) This competition will best be introduced by the creation of an Independent System Operator and an independent Power Exchange.
  (2) Generation of electricity should be open to competition.
  (3) There is a need to ensure that no participant in these new market institutions has the ability to exercise significant market power so that operation of the new market institutions would be distorted.
  (4) These new market institutions should commence simultaneously with the phase in of customer choice, and the public will be best served if these institutions and the nonbypassable transition cost recovery mechanism referred to in subdivisions (s) to (w), inclusive, are in place simultaneously and no later than January 1, 1998.
  (m) It is the intention of the Legislature that California's publicly owned electric utilities and investor-owned electric utilities should commit control of their transmission facilities to the Independent System Operator. These utilities should jointly advocate to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission a pricing methodology for the Independent System Operator that results in an equitable return on capital investment in transmission facilities for all Independent System Operator participants.
  (n) Opportunities to acquire electric power in the competitive market must be available to California consumers as soon as practicable, but no later than January 1, 1998, so that all customers can share in the benefits of competition.
  (o) Under the existing regulatory framework, California's electrical corporations were granted franchise rights to provide electricity to consumers in their service territories.
  (p) Consistent with federal and state policies, California electrical corporations invested in power plants and entered into contractual obligations in order to provide reliable electrical service on a nondiscriminatory basis to all consumers within their service territories who requested service.
  (q) The cost of these investments and contractual obligations are currently being recovered in electricity rates charged by electrical corporations to their consumers.
  (r) Transmission and distribution of electric power remain essential services imbued with the public interest that are provided over facilities owned and maintained by the state's electrical corporations.
  (s) It is proper to allow electrical corporations an opportunity to continue to recover, over a reasonable transition period, those costs and categories of costs for generation-related assets and obligations, including costs associated with any subsequent renegotiation or buyout of existing generation-related contracts, that the commission, prior to December 20, 1995, had authorized for collection in rates and that may not be recoverable in market prices in a competitive generation market, and appropriate additions incurred after December 20, 1995, for capital additions to generating facilities existing as of December 20, 1995, that the commission determines are reasonable and should be recovered, provided that the costs are necessary to maintain those facilities through December 31, 2001. In determining the costs to be recovered, it is appropriate to net the negative value of above market assets against the positive value of below market assets.
  (t) The transition to a competitive generation market should be orderly, protect electric system reliability, provide the investors in these electrical corporations with a fair opportunity to fully recover the costs associated with commission approved generation-related assets and obligations, and be completed as expeditiously as possible.
  (u) The transition to expanded customer choice, competitive markets, and performance based ratemaking as described in Decision 95-12-063, as modified by Decision 96-01-009, of the Public Utilities Commission, can produce hardships for employees who have dedicated their working lives to utility employment. It is preferable that any necessary reductions in the utility workforce directly caused by electrical restructuring, be accomplished through offers of voluntary severance, retraining, early retirement, outplacement, and related benefits. Whether workforce reductions are voluntary or involuntary, reasonable costs associated with these sorts of benefits should be included in the competition transition charge.
  (v) Charges associated with the transition should be collected over a specific period of time on a nonbypassable basis and in a manner that does not result in an increase in rates to customers of electrical corporations. In order to insulate the policy of nonbypassability against incursions, if exemptions from the competition transition charge are granted, a firewall shall be created that segregates recovery of the cost of exemptions as follows:
  (1) The cost of the competition transition charge exemptions granted to members of the combined class of residential and small commercial customers shall be recovered only from those customers.
  (2) The cost of the competition transition charge exemptions granted to members of the combined class of customers other than residential and small commercial customers shall be recovered only from those customers. The commission shall retain existing cost allocation authority provided that the firewall and rate freeze principles are not violated.
  (w) It is the intent of the Legislature to require and enable electrical corporations to monetize a portion of the competition transition charge for residential and small commercial consumers so that these customers will receive rate reductions of no less than 10 percent for 1998 continuing through 2002. Electrical corporations shall, by June 1, 1997, or earlier, secure the means to finance the competition transition charge by applying concurrently for financing orders from the Public Utilities Commission and for rate reduction bonds from the California Infrastructure and Economic Development Bank.
  (x) California's public utility electrical corporations provide substantial benefits to all Californians, including employment and support of the state's economy. Restructuring the electric services industry pursuant to the act that added this chapter will continue these benefits, and will also offer meaningful and immediate rate reductions for residential and small commercial customers, and facilitate competition in the supply of electric power.
The definitions set forth in this section shall govern the construction of this chapter.
  (a) "Aggregator" means any marketer, broker, public agency, city, county, or special district, that combines the loads of multiple end-use customers in facilitating the sale and purchase of electric energy, transmission, and other services on behalf of these customers.
  (b) "Broker" means an entity that arranges the sale and purchase of electric energy, transmission, and other services between buyers and sellers, but does not take title to any of the power sold.
  (c) "Direct transaction" means a contract between any one or more electric generators, marketers, or brokers of electric power and one or more retail customers providing for the purchase and sale of electric power or any ancillary services.
  (d) "Fire wall" means the line of demarcation separating residential and small commercial customers from all other customers as described in subdivision (e) of Section 367.
  (e) "Marketer" means any entity that buys electric energy, transmission, and other services from traditional utilities and other suppliers, and then resells those services at wholesale or to an end-use customer.
  (f) "Microcogeneration facility" means a cogeneration facility of less than one megawatt.
  (g) "Restructuring trusts" means the two tax-exempt public benefit trusts established by Decision 96-08-038 of the Public Utilities Commission to provide for design and development of the hardware and software systems for the Power Exchange and the Independent System Operator, respectively, and that may undertake other activities, as needed, as ordered by the commission.
  (h) "Small commercial customer" means a customer that has a maximum peak demand of less than 20 kilowatts.
For purposes of this chapter, "community choice aggregator" means any of the following entities, if that entity is not within the jurisdiction of a local publicly owned electric utility that provided electrical service as of January 1, 2003:
  (a) Any city, county, or city and county whose governing board elects to combine the loads of its residents, businesses, and municipal facilities in a communitywide electricity buyers' program.
  (b) Any group of cities, counties, or cities and counties whose governing boards have elected to combine the loads of their programs, through the formation of a joint powers agency established under Chapter 5 (commencing with Section 6500) of Division 7 of Title 1 of the Government Code.
  (c) The Kings River Conservation District, the Sonoma County Water Agency, and any California public agency possessing statutory authority to generate and deliver electricity at retail within its designated jurisdiction, provided the entity may only combine the loads of residences, businesses, and governmental facilities of cities and counties within, or contiguous to, its jurisdiction that have, by resolution exercised pursuant to paragraph (12) of subdivision (c) of Section 366.2, requested the agency to implement a community choice aggregation program.
(a) (1) It is the intent of the Legislature to enact Item 1 (revised) on the commission's August 21, 2000 agenda, entitled "Opinion Modifying Decision (D.) D.00-06-034 and D.00-08-021 to Regarding Interim Rate Caps for San Diego Gas and Electric Company," as modified below.
  (2) It is also the intent of the Legislature that to the extent that the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission orders refunds to electrical corporations pursuant to their findings, the commission shall ensure that any refunds are returned to customers.
  (b) The commission shall establish a ceiling of six and five-tenths cents ($0.065) per kilowatthour on the energy component of electric bills for electricity supplied to residential, small commercial, and street lighting customers by the San Diego Gas and Electric Company, through December 31, 2002, retroactive to June 1, 2000. If the commission finds it in the public interest, this ceiling may be extended through December 2003 and may be adjusted as provided in subdivision (d).
  (c) The commission shall establish an accounting procedure to track and recover reasonable and prudent costs of providing electric energy to retail customers unrecovered through retail bills due to the application of the ceiling provided for in subdivision (b). The accounting procedure shall utilize revenues associated with sales of energy from utility-owned or managed generation assets to offset an undercollection, if undercollection occurs. The accounting procedure shall be reviewed periodically by the commission, but not less frequently than semiannually. The commission may utilize an existing proceeding to perform the review. The accounting procedure and review shall provide a reasonable opportunity for San Diego Gas and Electric Company to recover its reasonable and prudent costs of service over a reasonable period of time.
  (d) If the commission determines that it is in the public interest to do so, the commission, after the date of the completion of the proceeding described in subdivision (g), may adjust the ceiling from the level specified in subdivision (b), and may adjust the frozen rate from the levels specified in subdivision (f), consistent with the Legislature's intent to provide substantial protections for customers of the San Diego Gas and Electric Company and their interest in just and reasonable rates and adequate service.
  (e) For purposes of this section, "small commercial customer" includes, but is not limited to, all San Diego Gas and Electric Company accounts on Rate Schedule A of the San Diego Gas and Electric Company, all accounts of customers who are "general acute care hospitals," as defined in Section 1250 of the Health and Safety Code, all San Diego Gas and Electric Company accounts of customers who are public or private schools for pupils in kindergarten or any of grades 1 to 12, inclusive, and all accounts on Rate Schedule AL-TOU under 100 kilowatts.
  (f) The commission shall establish an initial frozen rate of six and five-tenths cents ($0.065) per kilowatthour on the energy component of electric bills for electricity supplied to all customers by the San Diego Gas and Electric Company not subject to subdivision (b), for the time period ending with the end of the rate freeze for the Pacific Gas and Electric Company and the Southern California Edison Company pursuant to Section 368, retroactive to February 7, 2001. The commission shall consider the comparable energy components of rates for comparable customer classes served by the Pacific Gas and Electric Company and the Southern California Edison Company and, if it determines it to be in the public interest, the commission may adjust this frozen rate, and may do so, retroactive to the date that rate increases took effect for customers of Pacific Gas and Electric Company and Southern California Edison Company pursuant to the commission's March 27, 2001, decision. The commission shall determine the Fixed Department of Water Resources Set-Aside pursuant to Section 360.5 for customers subject to this section, reflecting a retail rate consistent with the rate for the energy component of electric bills as determined in this subdivision, in place of the retail rate in effect on January 5, 2001. This section shall be construed to modify the payment provisions, but may not be construed to modify the electric procurement obligations of the Department of Water Resources, pursuant to any contract or agreement in accordance with Division 27 (commencing with Section 80000) of the Water Code, and in effect as of February 7, 2001, between the Department of Water Resources and San Diego Gas and Electric Company.
  (g) The commission shall institute a proceeding to examine the prudence and reasonableness of the San Diego Gas and Electric Company in the procurement of wholesale energy on behalf of its customers, for a period beginning, at the latest, on June 1, 2000. If the commission finds that San Diego Gas and Electric Company acted imprudently or unreasonably, the commission shall issue orders that it determines to be appropriate affecting the retail rates of San Diego Gas and Electric Company customers including, but not limited to, refunds.
  (h) Nothing in this section may be construed to limit the authority of the Department of Water Resources pursuant to Division 27 (commencing with Section 80000) of the Water Code.
Rates set by the commission that are subject to subdivision (f) of Section 332.1 may not result in any retroactive recovery of undercollections by the San Diego Gas and Electric Company. Any undercollection resulting from the retroactive rate reductions ordered pursuant to this chapter, retroactive to February 7, 2001, may not result in a revenue undercollection to San Diego Gas and Electric Company.
Rates set by the commission that are subject to subdivision (f) of Section 332.1 may not result in any retroactive recovery of undercollections by the San Diego Gas and Electric Company. Any undercollection resulting from the retroactive rate reductions ordered pursuant to this chapter, retroactive to February 7, 2001, may not result in a revenue undercollection to San Diego Gas and Electric Company.