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SB-99 Community Energy Resilience Act of 2021.(2021-2022)

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Date Published: 07/05/2021 09:00 PM
SB99:v97#DOCUMENT

Amended  IN  Assembly  July 05, 2021
Amended  IN  Senate  April 12, 2021

CALIFORNIA LEGISLATURE— 2021–2022 REGULAR SESSION

Senate Bill
No. 99

Introduced by Senator Dodd

December 28, 2020

An act to add Division 16.7 (commencing with Section 26450) to the Public Resources Code, relating to energy.


LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST


SB 99, as amended, Dodd. Community Energy Resilience Act of 2021.
Existing law establishes within the Natural Resources Agency the State Energy Resources Conservation and Development Commission. Existing law assigns the commission various duties, including applying for and accepting grants, contributions, and appropriations, and awarding grants consistent with the goals and objectives of a program or activity the commission is authorized to implement or administer.
This bill, the Community Energy Resilience Act of 2021, would require the commission to develop and implement a grant program for local governments to develop community energy resilience plans and expedite permit review of distributed energy resources. The bill would authorize a community choice aggregator or other regional energy collaborative to apply for funding and prepare a community energy resilience plan on behalf of one or more of the local governments it serves upon request of that local government. The bill would set forth guiding principles for plan development, including equitable access to reliable energy, as provided. resources by local governments. The bill would require that the plans to be consistent with the city, county, or city and county general plan and other local government planning documents. The bill would require a plan to, among other things, ensure that a reliable electricity supply is maintained at to identify critical facilities and identify areas most likely to experience a loss of electrical service. The bill would require a public utility to share information identifying critical facilities and areas most likely to experience a loss of electricity with the local government, community choice aggregator, or regional energy collaborative that is preparing a community energy resilience plan. The bill would authorize grant funding awarded to be expended to complete environmental clearance of community energy resilience projects identified in the plan. facilities, locations and facilities where the construction of microgrids could meet local resilience needs, and potential funding sources, as specified.
The bill would require the commission to maintain a publicly available and searchable database of all local governments, community choice aggregators, or regional energy collaboratives governments receiving grant funding pursuant to the program, including information on specific plan projects. program. The bill would require a local government, community choice aggregator, or regional energy collaborative, as a condition of receiving grant funding, to submit its plan and a report of project expenditures to the commission within 6 months of completing the plan. The bill would require the commission to annually report specified information about the grant program to the Legislature and post the report on its internet website.
Vote: MAJORITY   Appropriation: NO   Fiscal Committee: YES   Local Program: NO  

The people of the State of California do enact as follows:


SECTION 1.

 (a) This act shall be known, and may be cited, as the Community Energy Resilience Act of 2021.
(b) The Legislature finds and declares all of the following:
(1) Development and implementation of community energy resilience plans will help ensure continuous electricity service during power outages, including unplanned outages and intentional deenergizations of the electrical grid, which in recent years have imposed enormous costs on California communities.
(2) Developing reliable electrical systems for critical facilities is a paramount public safety priority to protect the health and well-being of California residents and businesses.
(3) Local governments and community-based organizations typically lack the financial resources or expertise needed for community energy resilience planning in order to increase the utilization of distributed clean energy resources.

(4)In the absence of community energy resilience plans, local governments, investor-owned utilities, businesses, and the public are spending enormous sums purchasing fossil fuel-powered backup generation, expenditures that run counter to California’s environmental goals and can be avoided with available clean energy technologies.

(5)

(4) Local governments have the greatest degree of local political accountability and the ability to identify, working in collaboration with community-based organizations, which facilities are most important to local residents and necessary to maintain public health and safety, and can most effectively integrate the permitting of distributed energy resources capable of providing electricity during outages. Local governments that have formed a community choice aggregator or other regional energy collaborative are well positioned to work together through that entity to develop an energy resilience plan covering the larger geographic area served by the community choice aggregator or other regional energy collaborative.

(6)

(5) With proper engineering and planning, local governments will be able to speed deployment of resilient clean energy systems and take advantage of state, federal, and other funding sources.
(c) It is the intent of the Legislature to do all of the following:

(1)Increase employment in California through deployment of community energy resilience improvements based on clean energy.

(2)Prioritize development of clean energy resilience in lower income communities that suffer the most from air pollution and power outages.

(3)Direct direct the State Energy Resources Conservation and Development Commission to develop necessary procedures for implementation of a new program to provide technical guidance and financial assistance for local governments to develop and implement community energy resilience plans, including specific resilience projects that can be implemented upon receiving an appropriation from the Legislature to fund this program. plans.

SEC. 2.

 Division 16.7 (commencing with Section 26450) is added to the Public Resources Code, to read:

DIVISION 16.7. Community Energy Resilience Planning

26450.
 For the purposes of this division, the following terms have the following meanings:
(a) “Commission” means the State Energy Resources Conservation and Development Commission, commonly known as the California Energy Commission.

(b)“Community choice aggregator” has the same meaning as defined in Section 331.1 of the Public Utilities Code.

(c)

(b) “Community energy resilience plan” means a planning document prepared by a local government, community choice aggregator, or regional energy collaborative government pursuant to this division that sets forth a strategy and identifies specific projects for reducing the adverse impacts associated with electrical power interruptions resulting from scheduled and unintended outages. Unless the context requires otherwise, “plan” means a community energy resilience plan.

(d)“Critical facility” means the types of facilities described in Public Utilities Commission Decision 19-05-042, Decision Adopting De-Energization Guidelines, or any subsequent amendments to that decision by the Public Utilities Commission, and other facilities identified by a local government.

(e)

(c) “Local government” means a city, county, city and county, or California Native American tribe, as defined in Section 21073.

(f)

(d) “Public utility” means an electrical corporation, as defined in Section 218 of the Public Utilities Code, or a local publicly owned electric utility, as defined in Section 224.3 of the Public Utilities Code.

26451.
 (a) The commission shall develop and implement a grant program pursuant to this division for local governments to develop community energy resilience plans and expedite permit review of distributed energy resources. A community choice aggregator or other regional energy collaborative may apply for funding and prepare a community energy resilience plan on behalf of one or more of the local governments it serves upon request of that local government. resources by local governments.
(b) Before dispersing grant funds pursuant to this division, the commission shall do all both of the following:
(1) Develop and adopt solicitation and evaluation procedures for applicants to submit a community energy resilience plan funding proposal to do both of the following:
(A) Develop a community energy resilience plan and for overall plan structure and content, including development of a formula for prioritizing funds for critical facilities in low-income or disadvantaged communities that are most likely to experience future electrical grid deenergization events, power outages, followed in priority by other critical facilities statewide. in the planning area.
(B) Develop a process for the expedited permit review of distributed energy resources. resources by local governments.
(2) Conduct two public meetings to consider public comment.
(c) The project plan solicitation and evaluation procedures shall prioritize proposals for funding that would support both of the following:
(1)Equitable equitable collaboration between public utilities, local governments, community-based organizations, and state agencies to yield plans that not only help achieve local energy resilience objectives, but also state renewable energy goals.

(2)Integration of available mobile storage resources that may become available through transportation electrification.

(d) A community energy resiliency plan shall be consistent with the city, county, or city and county general plan and other local government planning documents. The plan may include provisions to facilitate the expedited local permitting of community energy resilience projects identified in the plan. distributed energy resources.
(e) The commission shall fund technical assistance providers to assist in plan development, including all of the following:
(1) Identifying and coordinating with appropriate local government staff and outside consultants capable of drafting the plan. A local government may hire a resilience manager to manage the plan development process and the implementation of any specific projects identified in the plan.
(2) Convening and facilitating one or more community workshops enlisting local stakeholders, including, but not limited to, labor representatives, representatives from community-based organizations, community members, representatives from related technology vendors, local government staff in departments relating to emergency services, planning, and public works, disability rights advocates, and representatives from special districts, load-serving entities, school districts, environmental justice communities, communities of color, and other marginalized groups, to ensure that a diversity of perspectives and input is incorporated into the plan.
(3) Soliciting and utilizing input from public utility operational and technical subject matter experts, including relevant data to enable local governments to design their plans to make efficient use of existing distribution infrastructure and support grid operation. experts.
(4) Providing guidance and support to each local government receiving plan funds for the local government to designate a diverse plan steering committee to ensure robust and meaningful public participation.
(f) A plan for which a local government, community choice aggregator, or regional energy collaborative government receives grant funding shall do all of the following:
(1) Identify critical facilities, including facilities that can serve as community resilience hubs to accommodate and provide basic services to people who have lost power to their homes.

(2)Identify areas most likely to experience a loss of electrical service based on public utility determinations of remote or hazardous areas likely to be subject to a planned deenergization of the electrical grid.

(3)Identify electrical distribution system improvements that can be undertaken by a public utility and that will reduce the risk of deenergization for communities and critical facilities.

(4)Identify projects that can be combined to share engineering costs and achieve scalability of projects across like facilities to create the most value for a community.

(5)

(2) Identify locations and facilities where the construction of microgrids could meet local resilience needs.

(6)

(3) Identify critical facilities that are in greatest need of backup energy generation and potential backup energy systems that may meet the needs of those facilities.

(7)

(4) Identify potential funding sources for implementation of projects included in the plan.

(g)Grant funding awarded to a local government, community choice aggregator, or regional energy collaborative pursuant to this division may be expended to complete environmental clearance of community energy resilience projects identified in the plan.

(h)

(g) Grant funding awarded to a local government, community choice aggregator, or regional energy collaborative government pursuant to this division does not affect the entity’s eligibility to receive other incentives available from federal, state, or other local governments, public utilities, or any other source, or to leverage the grant funding awarded pursuant to this division with any other incentive.

(i)A public utility shall share information identifying critical facilities and areas most likely to experience a loss of electricity with a local government, community choice aggregator, or regional energy collaborative that is preparing a community energy resilience plan.

26452.
 (a) The commission shall maintain a publicly available and searchable database of all local governments, community choice aggregators, or regional energy collaboratives governments receiving grant funding pursuant to this division, including information on specific plan projects. division. The database shall include relevant metrics to be determined by the commission.
(b) As a condition of receiving grant funding, within six months of completing its plan, a local government, community choice aggregator, or regional energy collaborative government shall submit the plan and a report of project expenditures to the commission.
(c) (1) The commission shall prepare an annual summary of statewide program expenditures and hire an independent, third-party evaluator to quantify and evaluate the effects of the grant program.
(2) Pursuant to Section 9795 of the Government Code, the commission shall annually report the information it receives to the Legislature and post the report on its internet website.