Committee Approves Sen. Dodd’s Power System Reliability Bill

SACRAMENTO –Sen. Bill Dodd, D-Napa, announced today his legislation to improve the reliability of California’s electricity grid, preventing rolling blackouts such as those that left hundreds of thousands of residents without power during summer and fall heatwaves, has cleared a key committee.

“By reducing demand from the largest energy users during peak times, my bill would make the grid more reliable, ensuring Californians have continued access to the energy they need,” Sen. Dodd said. “We need to be proactive to prevent the risk of future blackouts. Outages that come from imbalanced supply and demand are completely unacceptable.”

Since the 1980s, industrial customers have contributed to grid reliability by curtailing manufacturing when capacity is scarce under an emergency system known as the Base Interruptible Program. During extreme heat in August and September, the California Public Utilities Commission twice called on large businesses to voluntarily reduce energy consumption, preventing more widespread outages that would have left nearly a million customers in the dark. However, an improved program could have further reduced blackouts.

Senate Bill 204 strengthens the commission’s mandate to call for energy use reductions, requires participation from the state’s three largest utilities and improves incentives for compliance. It is supported by the California Large Energy Consumers Association. The bill is co-authored by Assembly member Chad Mayes, I-Yucca Valley.

It was approved late Monday in the Senate Energy, Utilities and Communications committee with overwhelming support. 

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Senator Bill Dodd represents the 3rd Senate District, which includes all or portions of Napa, Solano, Yolo, Sonoma, Contra Costa, and Sacramento counties. You can learn more about the district and Senator Dodd at www.sen.ca.gov/dodd.