AMENDED IN SENATE MAY 14, 2026

CALIFORNIA LEGISLATURE— 2025–2026 REGULAR SESSION

98

Introduced by Senator Stern

February 18, 2026

An act to amend Section 25233 of the Public Resources Code, relating to energy.

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

LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL’S DIGEST

Existing law requires the State Energy Resources Conservation and Development Commission (Energy Commission) and the Public Utilities Commission (PUC), on or before December 15, 2022, and quarterly thereafter, to submit to the Legislature a joint Reliability Planning Assessment that, among other things, includes prospective information on existing and expected resources, including updates on the interconnection status for renewable projects and any delays in interconnection, and expected retirements for both system and local resources. Existing law requires the Energy Commission to report in the energy almanac on California energy resources that serve load in California.

This bill would require that the assessment also include the status of utility transmission upgrades and electrical grid infrastructure capacity, capacity and PUC approvals of applications for certificates of public convenience and necessity and permits to construct utility and independent projects, and applications for permits for projects from the Energy Commission and the queue of projects from the Independent System Operator, include the expected completion dates for both system and local resources, and report on the use of fossil fuel by certain facilities constructed by, purchased by, or under contract with, the Department of Water Resources, as specified.

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

SECTION 1.

Section 25233 of the Public Resources Code is amended to read:

25233.

(a) Notwithstanding Section 10231.5 of the Government Code, on or before December 15, 2022, and quarterly thereafter, the commission and the Public Utilities Commission shall submit a joint Reliability Planning Assessment to the Legislature in accordance with Section 9795 of the Government Code.

(1) The assessment shall identify estimates for the electrical supply and demand balance, for the forward 5- and 10-year periods, under high-, medium-, and low-risk scenarios. The assessment shall identify loads and resources online and loads and resources expected by reliability year ending September 30.

(2) The assessment shall focus on the Independent System Operator system, with an emphasis on the electrical demand, load, supply, or resources for load-serving entities subject to the Public Utilities Commission’s jurisdiction. The assessment shall break down loads and resources by type of load-serving entity by year by transmission access charge area.

(3) The assessment shall include information about imports, by amount, source if known, and other relevant factors, and transmission capacity for imports by date and transmission access area or balancing authority.

(4) The commission shall provide an estimate for the loads and resources for the entities that are not subject to the Public Utilities Commission’s jurisdiction that are part of the Independent System Operator system supply and demand balance.

(5) The assessment shall include prospective information on existing and expected resources, including updates on the interconnection status for renewable projects and any delays in interconnection, the status of utility transmission upgrades and electrical grid infrastructure capacity, including substations and expanded transmission in existing corridors, the status of Public Utilities Commission approvals of applications for certificates of public convenience and necessity and permits to construct utility and independent projects, the status of applications for permits for projects from the commission and the queue of projects from the Independent System Operator, filtered by geographic region and energy resource type, and expected completion dates and retirements for both system and local resources. This shall include updates based on actions taken directly by, or as a result of, the Tracking Energy Development Task Force. The assessment shall include an accompanying Gantt chart to track progress.

(6) The assessment shall maintain confidentiality of market sensitive information.

(7) The assessment shall rely upon the most recently available integrated energy policy report prepared pursuant to Section 25302 for the demand assessment.

(8) The assessment shall report on any other significant delays or barriers affecting timely deployment of renewable energy and zero-carbon resources, including, but not limited to, supply chain disruptions, land use restrictions, and permitting processes.

(9) The assessment shall make recommendations to the Legislature on actions needed to resolve any delays or barriers reported in the assessment.

(10) The assessment shall report on any regulatory barriers and challenges to increasing deployment of other preferred resources, including energy efficiency and demand response programs.

(b) The commission shall continue to report on California energy resources that serve load in California in the energy almanac. The commission shall expand the energy almanac report to include storage resources that serve wholesale load. The commission shall report on energy resources that serve load in the Independent System Operator system, which is a subset of its current reporting of all California resources, and may include energy resources located outside the state.