CA SB 284

Title: Public utilities: contracting: interconnection transparency and efficiency: wholesale distribution service.
Author: Scott D. Wiener

Summary
SB 284, as amended, Wiener. Public utilities: contracting: interconnection transparency and efficiency: wholesale distribution service. Existing law vests the Public Utilities Commission with regulatory jurisdiction over public utilities, including electrical and gas corporations.This bill would require the commission to require each electrical corporation to make distribution data and distribution planning standards available to development project applicants, interconnecting entities, and public entities in a timely and efficient manner. The bill would require the commission to require each electrical corporation to develop and make publicly available information about its distribution system interconnection queue necessary for the interconnection of generation and electrical load. The bill would require each electrical corporation that has filed a wholesale distribution tariff with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission to offer service under that tariff to the state, an agency, authority, or instrumentality of the state, or a political subdivision to transmit electricity that those public entities consume or sell directly to an ultimate customer, at the voltage requested by those public entities.The Subletting and Subcontracting Fair Practices Act imposes various requirements on the state and any county, city, body politic, or public agency, and prime contractors and subcontractors, as defined, relating to the solicitation and acceptance of bids for construction on a public work or improvement. The act requires a bid to include specified information relating to the contractors to perform work under that bid, imposes limitations on the substitution, assignment, or sublet of subcontractors once a bid has been accepted, creates a process for addressing clerical errors in a submitted bid that requires, among other things, that the affected contractors submit affidavits under penalty of perjury, and imposes requirements on prime contractors and subcontractors relating to payment bonds. The act imposes various penalties for the violation of these provisions.This bill would impose the above-described requirements on electrical corporations or gas corporations, defined as “investor-owned utilities,” prime contractors, and subcontractors relating to the solicitation and acceptance of bids for a project of an investor-owned utility when the expenditure for a project exceeds $10,000, the project is undertaken in California, and the investor-owned utility intends to contract out the project. The bill would require an investor-owned utility to solicit bids in writing and award the work to the lowest responsible bidder or reject all bids. The bill would also require an investor-owned utility to specify various requirements relating to the payment of a prevailing wage, apprenticeship training, payment bonds, and a grievance process. By expanding the crime of perjury, the bill would impose a state-mandated local program. This bill would require an investor-owned utility to require its contractors and subcontractors to use a skilled and trained workforce to perform work on projects for the production, generation, transmission, distribution, or storage of energy. The bill would require the commission to require investor-owned utilities to obtain certain reports from their contractors, bidders, or other entities and to transmit those reports to the commission.This bill would prohibit an investor-owned utility from requiring a contractor to enter into, or not enter into, a collective bargaining agreement with any labor organization as a condition for bidding on any contracting work, entering into a contract with, or performing any contracting work for, the investor-owned utility, unless the agreement is a multicraft project labor agreement and certain requirements are met.Existing law defines the term “public works” for the purposes of various requirements relating to wages, working hours, and workers’ compensation for work performed on a p

Status
From committee with author's amendments. Read second time and amended. Re-referred to Com. on L. & E.

Bill Documents
CA SB 284 - 06/20/23 - Amended Assembly
06/20/23 - CA SB 284 (06/20/23 - Amended Assembly)