(a) Except as expressly authorized by this section, and subject to the limitations in subdivisions (b) and (c), the right of retail end-use customers pursuant to this chapter to acquire service from other providers is suspended until the Legislature, by statute, lifts the suspension or otherwise authorizes direct transactions. For purposes of this section, “other provider” means any person, corporation, or other entity that is authorized to provide electric service within the service territory of an electrical corporation pursuant to this chapter, and includes an aggregator, broker, or marketer, as defined in Section 331, and an electric service provider, as defined in Section 218.3. “Other provider” does not include a community choice aggregator, as defined in Section 331.1, and the limitations in this section do not apply to the sale of electricity by “other providers” to a community choice aggregator for resale to community choice aggregation electricity consumers pursuant to Section 366.2.

(b) The commission shall authorize individual retail nonresidential end-use customers to acquire electric service from other providers in each electrical corporation’s distribution service territory, up to a maximum allowable total kilowatthours annual limit. The maximum allowable annual limit shall be established by the commission for each electrical corporation at the maximum total kilowatthours supplied by all other providers to distribution customers of that electrical corporation during any sequential 12-month period between April 1, 1998, and October 11, 2009. Within six months of October 11, 2009, the commission shall adopt and implement a reopening schedule that commences immediately and will phase in the allowable amount of increased kilowatthours over a period of not less than three years, and not more than five years, raising the allowable limit of kilowatthours supplied by other providers in each electrical corporation’s distribution service territory from the number of kilowatthours provided by other providers as of October 11, 2009, to the maximum allowable annual limit for that electrical corporation’s distribution service territory. The commission shall review and, if appropriate, modify its currently effective rules governing direct transactions, but that review shall not delay the start of the phase-in schedule.

(c) Once the commission has authorized additional direct transactions pursuant to subdivision (b), it shall do both of the following:

(1) Ensure that other providers are subject to the same requirements that apply to the state’s three largest electrical corporations under any programs or rules adopted by the commission to implement the resource adequacy provisions of Section 380, the renewables portfolio standard provisions of Article 16 (commencing with Section 399.11), the requirements for the electricity sector adopted by the State Air Resources Board pursuant to the California Global Warming Solutions Act of 2006 (Division 25.5 (commencing with Section 38500) of the Health and Safety Code), and the requirements of the integrated resource planning process as specified in Sections 454.52 to 454.54, inclusive. This requirement applies notwithstanding any prior decision of the commission to the contrary.

(2) (A) Ensure that, in the event that the commission authorizes, in the situation of a contract with a third party, or orders, in the situation of utility-owned generation, an electrical corporation to obtain generation resources that the commission determines are needed to meet system or local area reliability needs for the benefit of all customers in the electrical corporation’s distribution service territory, the net capacity costs of those generation resources are allocated on a fully nonbypassable basis consistent with departing load provisions as determined by the commission, to all of the following:

(i) Bundled service customers of the electrical corporation.

(ii) Customers that purchase electricity through a direct transaction with other providers.

(iii) Customers of community choice aggregators.

(B) If the commission authorizes or orders an electrical corporation to obtain generation resources pursuant to subparagraph (A), the commission shall ensure that those resources meet a system or local reliability need in a manner that benefits all customers of the electrical corporation. The commission shall allocate the costs of those generation resources to ratepayers in a manner that is fair and equitable to all customers, whether they receive electric service from the electrical corporation, a community choice aggregator, or an electric service provider.

(C) The resource adequacy benefits of generation resources acquired by an electrical corporation pursuant to subparagraph (A) shall be allocated to all customers who pay their net capacity costs. Net capacity costs shall be determined by subtracting the energy and ancillary services value of the resource from the total costs paid by the electrical corporation pursuant to a contract with a third party or the annual revenue requirement for the resource if the electrical corporation directly owns the resource. An energy auction shall not be required as a condition for applying this allocation, but may be allowed as a means to establish the energy and ancillary services value of the resource for purposes of determining the net costs of capacity to be recovered from customers pursuant to this paragraph, and the allocation of the net capacity costs of contracts with third parties shall be allowed for the terms of those contracts.

(D) It is the intent of the Legislature, in enacting this paragraph, to provide additional guidance to the commission with respect to the implementation of subdivision (g) of Section 380, and to ensure that the customers to whom the net costs and benefits of capacity are allocated are not required to pay for the cost of electricity they do not consume.

(d) (1) If the commission approves a centralized resource adequacy mechanism pursuant to subdivisions (h) and (i) of Section 380, upon the implementation of the centralized resource adequacy mechanism the requirements of paragraph (2) of subdivision (c) shall be suspended. If the commission later orders that electrical corporations cease procuring capacity through a centralized resource adequacy mechanism, the requirements of paragraph (2) of subdivision (c) shall again apply.

(2) If the use of a centralized resource adequacy mechanism is authorized by the commission and has been implemented as set forth in paragraph (1), the net capacity costs of generation resources that the commission determines are required to meet urgent system or urgent local grid reliability needs, and that the commission authorizes to be procured outside of the Section 380 or Section 454.5 processes, shall be recovered according to paragraph (2) of subdivision (c).

(3) This subdivision does not supplant the resource adequacy requirements of Section 380 or the resource procurement procedures established in Section 454.5.

(e) On or before June 1, 2019, the commission shall issue an order regarding direct transactions that provides as follows:

(1) Increase the maximum allowable total kilowatthours annual limit by 4,000 gigawatthours and apportion that increase among the service territories of the electrical corporations.

(2) All residential and nonresidential customer accounts that are on direct access as of January 1, 2019, remain authorized to participate in direct transactions.

(Amended by Stats. 2023, Ch. 367, Sec. 5. (AB 1373) Effective October 7, 2023.)