(a) The commission may require an electrical corporation to purchase from an eligible customer-generator, excess electricity that is delivered to the grid that is generated by a combined heat and power system that is in compliance with Section 2843. The commission may establish a maximum kilowatthours limitation on the amount of excess electricity that an electrical corporation is required to purchase if the commission finds that the anticipated excess electricity generated has an adverse effect on long-term resource planning or reliable operation of the grid. The commission shall establish, in consultation with the Independent System Operator, tariff provisions that facilitate both the provisions of this chapter and the reliable operation of the grid.
(b) (1) Every electrical corporation shall file with the commission a standard tariff for the purchase of excess electricity from an eligible customer-generator.
(2) The tariff shall provide for payment for every kilowatthour delivered to the electrical grid by the combined heat and power system at a price determined by the commission.
(3) The tariff shall include flexible rates with options for different durations, not to exceed 10 years, and fixed or variable rates relative to the cost of natural gas.
(4) The commission shall ensure that ratepayers not utilizing combined heat and power systems are held indifferent to the existence of this tariff.
(c) The commission, in reviewing the tariff filed by an electrical corporation, shall establish time-of-delivery rates that encourage demand management and net generation of electricity during periods of peak system demand.
(d) Every electrical corporation shall make the tariff available to eligible customer-generators that own, or lease, and operate a combined heat and power system within the service territory of the electrical corporation, upon request. An electrical corporation may make the terms of the tariff available to an eligible customer in the form of a standard contract.
(e) The costs and benefits associated with any tariff or contract entered into by an electrical corporation pursuant to this section shall be allocated to all benefiting customers. For purposes of this section “benefiting customers” may, as determined by the commission, include bundled service customers of the electrical corporation, customers of the electrical corporation that receive their electric service through a direct transaction, as defined in subdivision (c) of Section 331, and customers of an electrical corporation that receive their electric service from a community choice aggregator, as defined in Section 331.1.
(f) The physical generating capacity of the combined heat and power system shall count toward the resource adequacy requirements of load-serving entities for purposes of Section 380.
(g) The commission shall adopt or maintain standby rates or charges for combined heat and power systems that are based only upon assumptions that are supported by factual data, and shall exclude any assumptions that forced outages or other reductions in electricity generation by combined heat and power systems will occur simultaneously on multiple systems, or during periods of peak electrical system demand, or both.
(h) The commission may modify or adjust the requirements of this article for any electrical corporation with less than 100,000 service connections, as individual circumstances merit.
(Added by Stats. 2007, Ch. 713, Sec. 1. Effective January 1, 2008.)