AB2111 - Electricity: transmission planning and transmission facilities.

Amended IN Senate August 21, 2026 Amended IN Senate July 01, 2026 Amended IN Senate June 04, 2026 Amended IN Assembly April 13, 2026 Amended IN Assembly March 26, 2026 Amended IN Assembly March 16, 2026 CALIFORNIA LEGISLATURE— 2025–2026 REGULAR SESSION Assembly Bill No. 2111 Introduced by Assembly Member Papan (Coauthor: Senator McNerney) February 18, 2026 An act to add and repeal Section 25308.1 of the Public Resources Code, and to amend Sections 454.51 and 454.57 of, and to add Section 454.57.5 to, of the Public Utilities Code, relating to electricity. LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST AB 2111, as amended, Papan. Electricity: transmission planning and transmission facilities. (1) Existing law requires the Public Utilities Commission (PUC), in consultation with the State Energy Resources Conservation and Development Commission (Energy Commission), to provide transmission-focused guidance to the Independent System Operator (ISO) about resource portfolios of expected future renewable energy resources and zero-carbon resources, including the allocation of those resources by region based on technical feasibility and commercial interest in each region to allow the ISO to identify and approve transmission facilities needed to interconnect resources and reliably serve the needs of load centers, as specified. On December 23, 2022, the PUC, the Energy Commission, and the ISO entered into a memorandum of understanding related to resource and transmission planning, transmission development and permitting, procurement, and interconnections to achieve reliability and policy needs and to coordinate the timely development of resources, resource interconnections, and needed transmission infrastructure. Existing law requires the Energy Commission and the PUC, in coordination with the ISO, every 5 years, to review the memorandum of understanding and a related workplan to ensure the memorandum and workplan reflect the coordination that is needed to help meet the state’s energy goals. This bill would require those entities, on or before January 1, 2028, to update the memorandum and workplan to, among other things, ensure that the memorandum and workplan reflect the requirements of Federal Energy Regulatory Commission Order 1920-A, 1920, as applicable. (2) Existing law vests the PUC with regulatory authority over public utilities, including electrical corporations. Existing law requires the PUC to identify a diverse and balanced portfolio of resources needed to ensure a reliable electricity supply that provides optimal integration of renewable energy and resource diversity in a cost-effective manner, as specified. This bill would require that the portfolio provide optimal integration in a cost-effective and risk-prudent manner, as specified. (3) Existing law requires that the above-described transmission-focused guidance provided to the ISO provide projections each year to support planning and approvals by the ISO in its annual transmission planning process, including projections of resource portfolios and electricity demand by region for at least 15 years into the future, as specified. Existing law expresses the state policy that planning for new transmission facilities include consideration of the goal of increasing systemwide reliability and cost efficiency, among other state policy goals. This bill would require that the guidance be provided on a recurring basis and address the allocation of those resources by region based on a consideration of technical feasibility, resource quality and availability, and commercial interest in each region, as specified. The bill would also require the guidance to address both sufficient infrastructure capacity to facilitate cost-effective procurement of certain resources and improvements to resource diversity and competition by increasing interconnection capacity to specific locations that reflect resource availability, as specified. The bill would require the PUC to separately provide additional transmission-focused guidance to the ISO that is risk prudent and supports compliance with Federal Energy Regulatory Commission Order 1920-A, as specified. the transmission-focused guidance takes into account uncertainty and optionality, is risk prudent, and supports compliance with Federal Energy Regulatory Commission orders, as specified. The bill would remove the requirement that the projections be provided annually and would require the projections of resource portfolios and electricity demand by region to be for at least 20, rather than 15, years into the future. The bill would add to those state policy goals reducing resource interconnection timelines and supporting achievement of the state’s energy, climate change, and air quality goals. The bill would also require the PUC, beginning on or before January 1, 2028, to make available on its internet website all nonconfidential input and output data used in the integrated resource planning and transmission planning processes, as specified. (4) This bill would incorporate additional changes to Section 454.57 of the Public Utilities Code proposed by AB 2369 to be operative only if this bill and AB 2369 are enacted and this bill is enacted last. (4) (5) Under existing law, a violation of the Public Utilities Act or any order, decision, rule, direction, demand, or requirement of the PUC is a crime. Because certain provisions of this bill would be a part of the act and because a violation of a PUC action implementing its requirements would be a crime, the bill would impose a state-mandated local program by creating a new crime. 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. Digest Key Vote: MAJORITY Appropriation: NO Fiscal Committee: YES Local Program: YES Bill Text The people of the State of California do enact as follows: SECTION 1. Section 25308.1 is added to the Public Resources Code, to read: 25308.1. (a) On or before January 1, 2028, the commission and Public Utilities Commission, in coordination with the Independent System Operator, shall update the Memorandum of Understanding Between the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) and the California Energy Commission (CEC) and the California Independent System Operator (ISO) Regarding Transmission and Resource Planning and Implementation (December 23, 2022) and the related workplan to do all of the following: (1) Ensure that the memorandum and workplan reflect the requirements of Federal Energy Regulatory Commission Order 1920-A, as published in Volume 89 of the Federal Register, Number 97174, 1920, as later clarified by FERC Order 1920-A and FERC Order 1920-B, as applicable. These revisions shall support the development of resource portfolios and approval of transmission facilities that are cost effective and risk prudent and equip the Independent System Operator with at least three portfolios that represent state policy needs in planning transmission in accordance with Order 1920-A. 1920. (2) Ensure that the commission provides load forecasts to support risk-prudent planning by the Public Utilities Commission. (3) Introduce a mechanism for the Public Utilities Commission to provide guidance on any supplemental or accelerated transmission needs to improve system adaptability, reduce risk, or support competitive resource procurement. (b) For purposes of this section, “risk prudent” has the same meaning as set forth in Section 454.51 of the Public Utilities Code. (c) This section shall remain in effect only until January 1, 2029, and as of that date is repealed. SEC. 2. Section 454.51 of the Public Utilities Code is amended to read: 454.51. The commission shall do all of the following: (a) Identify a diverse and balanced portfolio of resources needed to ensure a reliable electricity supply that provides optimal integration of renewable energy and resource diversity in a cost-effective and risk-prudent manner. The portfolio shall be used by the commission to establish integrated resource planning-based procurement requirements that rely on zero-carbon-emitting resources to the maximum extent reasonable and be designed to achieve the state policy specified in Section 454.53 and any statewide greenhouse gas emissions limit established pursuant to the California Global Warming Solutions Act of 2006 (Division 25.5 (commencing with Section 38500) of the Health and Safety Code) or any successor legislation. (b) Direct each electrical corporation to include, as part of its proposed procurement plan, a strategy for procuring best-fit and least-cost resources to satisfy the portfolio needs identified by the commission pursuant to subdivision (a). (c) Ensure that the net costs of any incremental renewable energy integration resources, or diverse resources, procured by an electrical corporation to satisfy the need identified in subdivision (a) are allocated on a fully nonbypassable basis consistent with the treatment of costs identified in paragraph (2) of subdivision (c) of Section 365.1. (d) Permit community choice aggregators to submit proposals for satisfying their portion of the renewable integration and diverse resources need identified in subdivision (a). If the commission finds this need is best met through long-term procurement commitments for resources, community choice aggregators shall also be required to make long-term commitments for resources. The commission shall approve proposals pursuant to this subdivision if it finds all of the following: (1) The resources proposed by a community choice aggregator will provide equivalent integration of renewable energy. (2) The resources proposed by a community choice aggregator will promote the efficient achievement of state energy policy objectives, including reductions in greenhouse gas emissions. (3) Bundled customers of an electrical corporation will be indifferent to the approval of the community choice aggregator proposals. (e) Ensure that all costs resulting from nonperformance in satisfying the need in subdivision (a) or (d), as applicable, shall be borne by the load-serving entity, as defined in Section 380, that failed to perform. (f) For purposes of this section, both of the following definitions apply: (1) “Planning uncertainties” means future uncertainties that may affect resource planning decisions, including, but not limited to, such as load growth, in-state and out-of-state resource availability, and technology costs, and other factors. costs. (2) “Risk prudent” means reflective of both of the following characteristics: (A) (i) Achieving state objectives, including ensuring a reliable electricity supply that provides optimal integration of renewable energy and resource diversity in a cost-effective manner, across a range of plausible futures informed by planning uncertainties. (ii) The ability of a risk-prudent plan to achieve state objectives is not dependent on an assumption of perfect foresight reflective of predictions or forecasts that assign one specific value to planning uncertainties. (B) Accounting for and including characterization of the ability of near-term decisions to improve adaptability in response to planning uncertainties. For purposes of this subparagraph, “improve adaptability” includes, but is not limited to, uncertainties, such as planning sufficient diverse resources and transmission facilities to accommodate planning uncertainties, maintaining a competitive market for resource procurement, and accounting for development and interconnection delays, and improving preparations for other contingencies. delays. SEC. 3. Section 454.57 of the Public Utilities Code is amended to read: 454.57. (a) This section shall be known, and may be cited, as the Accelerating Renewable Energy Delivery Act. (b) The Legislature finds and declares all of the following: (1) The commission, the Energy Commission, and the State Air Resources Board have jointly estimated that the state’s installed electrical generation may need a threefold increase in capacity to meet state carbon-free electricity policy targets. (2) Recordsetting renewable energy generation build rates are needed to meet the goals of the California Renewables Portfolio Standard Program and the Senate Bill 100 (Chapter 312 of the Statutes of 2018) target of supplying 100 percent of retail sales of electricity from renewable energy resources and zero-carbon resources. However, these build rates are not achievable without additional electrical transmission lines and facilities connecting new resources to consumers in the state’s load centers. (3) In recent years, California has seen problems in delivering renewable energy resources and zero-carbon resources to customers, including problems caused by constraints on the transmission system. First, there are generation pockets where the total potential output from renewable energy generation exceeds the capacity of the transmission system to export that energy. Second, there are load pockets where there is insufficient transmission capacity to import the renewable energy resources and zero-carbon resources that are available. Both types of constraints should be promptly fixed so that all available renewable energy resources and zero-carbon resources can be delivered to customers. (4) Reducing the use of nonpreferred resources in disadvantaged communities has been a priority for those communities, and they would benefit from increased access to electricity from new renewable energy resources and zero-carbon resources delivered to serve in-city loads. (5) New transmission facilities have many steps that must be accomplished before they are online and delivering electricity. Major new transmission lines can take more than a decade from initial planning to operation. (6) New transmission facilities should be planned to support delivery of future renewable energy and zero-carbon resources to load centers, where those resource locations are identified in the integrated resource planning process pursuant to Sections 454.52 and 9621 or as part of longer range planning processes pursuant to Section 454.53. (7) New transmission facilities should be designed to minimize the risk of transmission-triggered wildfires. (8) New transmission facilities should be designed to facilitate renewable energy transmission across California to better manage the variability of the electrical supply. (9) The Independent System Operator has issued a 20-Year Transmission Outlook that identifies substantial additional transmission projects needed to integrate renewable energy resources and storage for retail suppliers within the Independent System Operator balancing authority. Given the scale of this challenge, there is an urgent need to prioritize and accelerate the substantial effort needed to build transmiss [Text truncated for display. Full text available on Congress.gov.]