AMENDED IN SENATE SEPTEMBER 5, 2025

AMENDED IN SENATE JULY 3, 2025

AMENDED IN SENATE JUNE 17, 2025

AMENDED IN ASSEMBLY APRIL 7, 2025

CALIFORNIA LEGISLATURE— 2025–2026 REGULAR SESSION

93

CHAPTER 396

Statutes of 2025

[ Approved by Governor October 6, 2025. Filed with Secretary of State October 6, 2025. ]

Introduced by Assembly Member Garcia

February 21, 2025

An act to add Chapter 15 (commencing with Section 8550) to Division 4.1 of the Public Utilities Code, relating to utilities.

Vote: majority   Appropriation: no   Fiscal committee: yes   Local program: yes

LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL’S DIGEST

Existing law vests the Public Utilities Commission with regulatory authority over public utilities, including electrical corporations, gas corporations, and water corporations, while local publicly owned electric utilities are under the direction of their governing boards. If the commission finds after a hearing that the rules, practices, equipment, appliances, facilities, or service of any public utility, or the methods of manufacture, distribution, transmission, storage, or supply employed by the public utility, are unjust, unreasonable, unsafe, improper, inadequate, or insufficient, the Public Utilities Act requires the commission to determine and, by order or rule, fix the rules, practices, equipment, appliances, facilities, service, or methods to be observed, furnished, constructed, enforced, or employed.

This bill would require, except as provided, each electrical corporation, gas corporation, water corporation, or local publicly owned electric utility, on or before March 1, 2026, to automatically enroll its customers in alerts for service outages and updates. The bill would require customers to be provided with the opportunity to opt-out of any alerts they do not wish to receive, except as provided. The bill would require each of those utilities to annually provide information on customers’ bills on how to update their preferred contact methods and to allow customers to update their contact information on the utility’s internet website or, if feasible, by telephone.

Under existing law, a violation of any order, decision, rule, direction, demand, or requirement of the commission is a crime.

Because a violation of a commission action implementing this bill’s requirements would be a crime, the bill would impose a state-mandated local program. Additionally, by imposing new duties on local publicly owned electric utilities, the bill would impose a state-mandated local program.

The California Constitution requires the state to reimburse local agencies and school districts for certain costs mandated by the state. Statutory provisions establish procedures for making that reimbursement.

This bill would provide that no reimbursement is required by this act for specified reasons.

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

SECTION 1.

Chapter 15 (commencing with Section 8550) is added to Division 4.1 of the Public Utilities Code, to read:

Chapter 15. Customer Communications

8550.

(a) Except as provided in subdivision (b), each utility shall, on or before March 1, 2026, automatically enroll its customers in alerts for service outages and updates.

(b) (1) A local publicly owned electric utility that does not have the necessary system to implement the requirements of subdivision (a) shall, on or before March 1, 2026, develop appropriate and feasible procedures to maximize the automatic enrollment of its customers in alerts for electrical service outages and updates.

(2) (A) A local publicly owned electric utility that does not have the necessary system to implement the requirements of subdivision (a) shall, on or before March 1, 2028, develop a plan to update its system to automatically enroll its customers in alerts for electrical service outages and updates.

(B) If the governing board of the local publicly owned electric utility determines the plan developed pursuant to subparagraph (A) is cost effective, the local publicly owned electric utility shall implement the plan during the next significant, planned upgrade of its system or by March 1, 2030, whichever is sooner.

(c) Customers shall be provided with the opportunity to opt-out of alerts for service outages and updates that the customer does not wish to receive, except for required or essential notifications.

(d) Each utility shall annually provide information on a customer’s bill on how to update the customer’s preferred contact method and shall allow a customer to update the customer’s contact information on the utility’s internet website or, if feasible, by telephone.

(e) For purposes of this section, “utility” means an electrical corporation, as defined in Section 218, a local publicly owned electric utility, as defined in Section 224.3, a gas corporation, as defined in Section 222, or a water corporation, as defined in Section 241.

SEC. 2.

No reimbursement is required by this act pursuant to Section 6 of Article XIIIB of the California Constitution because a local agency or school district has the authority to levy service charges, fees, or assessments sufficient to pay for the program or level of service mandated by this act or because costs that may be incurred by a local agency or school district will be incurred because this act creates a new crime or infraction, eliminates a crime or infraction, or changes the penalty for a crime or infraction, within the meaning of Section 17556 of the Government Code, or changes the definition of a crime within the meaning of Section 6 of Article XIIIB of the California Constitution.