(The Center Square) – A bill aiming to lower electricity prices for Californians cleared another hurdle on its way to becoming law.
Assembly Bill 710, authored by Assemblymember Jacqui Irwin, D-Thousand Oaks, was born out of an effort to save money for consumers amid increasing energy costs, according to the bill analysis.
It was passed Thursday morning by the Assembly Utilities and Energy Committee. The bill now heads to the Assembly Appropriations Committee.
“Californians are facing an affordability crisis in the form of rapidly-rising electricity rates,” Irwin testified Thursday before the Assembly Utilities & Energy Committee. “Dynamic pricing encourages customers to use electricity at times when it is less expensive to generate and cleaner while discouraging use of more expensive and emission-intensive power during peak times.”
The legislation would allow electrical customers to voluntarily sign up for dynamic pricing, which would increase rates during times of peak use and lower prices during times when electricity usage in the area subsides, according to the text of the bill. The bill would also require publicly-owned electric utilities to formulate plans to roll out dynamic pricing infrastructure before Jan. 1, 2028.
Advocates for the bill said during the committee meeting that one of California’s primary challenges is a mismatch between abundant renewable energy supplies during the day and the peaks in demand for energy during daytime hours. A solution they pushed for – a solution that would become law if AB 710 passes – is load shifting, which gives customers the incentive to consume more energy when renewable energy sources are most active, while disincentivizing them to use energy during peak daytime hours, according to testimony supporting the bill.
“California often curtails or wastes renewable energy resources during the daytime, while relying on dirty, expensive energy during the hours of highest energy demand, ” said Caleb Weiss, clean energy associate at Environment California, during his testimony at the meeting on Thursday. “A clear solution to this challenge is the increased implementation of policies that would encourage load shifting.”
However, the costs of implementing AB 710, if it became law, would be onerous on energy providers like PG&E, one of the state’s biggest providers of electricity and gas, a lobbyist for PG&E said during her testimony at the committee meeting on Thursday.
“The bill would be very disruptive,” said Valerie Turella, manager of state government relations for PG&E, during her testimony on Thursday. “We’re saying this is premature. We’re not saying we disagree with this. We’re just saying setting a hard deadline would be disruptive to ways PG&E is trying to manage its bill modernization.”
The company is investing heavily in its efforts to modernize its billing systems, Turella said during her testimony.
“The more pressure you put on and hard deadlines you put on what needs to be integrated into that bill modernization, you’re going to put cost pressures to meet a deadline,” Turella said.
