AMENDED IN ASSEMBLY APRIL 13, 2026

AMENDED IN ASSEMBLY MARCH 19, 2026

CALIFORNIA LEGISLATURE— 2025–2026 REGULAR SESSION

97

Introduced by Assembly Member Irwin

February 20, 2026

An act to add Section 366.4 to the Public Utilities Code, relating to electricity.

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

LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL’S DIGEST

Existing law authorizes a community choice aggregator to aggregate the electrical load of interested electricity consumers within its boundaries and requires a community choice aggregator to file an implementation plan with the Public Utilities Commission, to register with the commission, and to enter into an operating service agreement with an electrical corporation. Existing law requires the Energy Unit within the Governor’s Office of Business and Economic Development to establish a Transmission Infrastructure Accelerator (accelerator) to develop a financing and development strategy for eligible transmission projects, as defined, to receive California Transmission Accelerator financing, and requires the accelerator to take the necessary steps to accelerate the development and deployment of those projects to maximize ratepayer savings.

This bill would authorize a community choice aggregator to sponsor, develop, finance, construct, operate, lease, purchase, and maintain electrical transmission lines, and any substations, or other works, facilities, improvements, and property necessary or convenient for the operation of those electrical transmission lines, own an eligible transmission project, regardless of whether the electrical transmission lines are used for the purpose of conveying electricity to the customers of the community choice aggregator.

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

Because a violation of a commission action implementing the provisions of this bill would be a crime, 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 a specified reason.

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

SECTION 1.

The Legislature finds and declares all of the following:

(a) California’s electricity rates are among the highest in the country and are projected to continue to outpace inflation over the next few years.

(b) The Independent System Operator’s 20-Year Transmission Outlook, published in July 2024, estimated the need for up to $63,200,000,000 in future transmission investments.

(c) Transmission projects are planned and authorized by the Independent System Operator and developed and owned by a wide range of public and private entities, including electrical corporations, publicly owned utilities, tribal governments, nonprofit charitable organizations, and private transmission developers, often in partnership with each other.

(d) The Independent System Operator issues competitive solicitations to build, own, and operate transmission projects and, since 2015, private transmission developers have been awarded 12 of 13 transmission projects in these competitive solicitations.

(e) The Legislature passed Senate Bill 254 of the 2025–26 Regular Session (Chapter 119 of the Statutes of 2025) to encourage public-private partnerships for transmission development to lower the costs for ratepayers.

(f) Community choice aggregators are public agencies providing electricity to over 15,000,000 Californians and have committed $48,400,000,000 to build and operate new clean energy resources. resource development.

(g) Community choice aggregators are not-for-profit entities authorized to issue low-cost, tax-exempt debt and have issued over $25,000,000,000 of tax-exempt bonds that save ratepayers $150,000,000 annually in renewable energy purchasing costs.

(h) Community choice aggregators provide approximately one-third of electricity on the Independent System Operator system but do not have explicit statutory authority to own or finance transmission.

(i) Community choice aggregators in partnership with private sector transmission developers and electrical corporations could reduce transmission development costs for all ratepayers in the Independent System Operator system by 20 percent to 30 percent per transmission line. system.

(j) Authorizing community choice aggregators to develop and finance transmission infrastructure is an important step towards addressing may help address rising electricity bills and delivering deliver reliable and affordable electricity to Californians.

SEC. 2.

Section 366.4 is added to the Public Utilities Code, to read:

366.4.

(a) A community choice aggregator may sponsor, develop, finance, construct, operate, lease, purchase, and maintain electrical transmission lines, and any substations, or other works, facilities, improvements, and property, or portion thereof, necessary or convenient for the operation of those electrical transmission lines, own an eligible transmission project, as defined in Section 63049.71 of the Government Code, regardless of whether the electrical transmission lines are used for the purpose of conveying electricity to the customers of the community choice aggregator.

(b) This section does not grant a community choice aggregator any additional authority to deliver electricity at retail.

SEC. 3.

No reimbursement is required by this act pursuant to Section 6 of Article XIIIB of the California Constitution because the only 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.