Energy: electrical demand forecasts.

Assembly Member Schultz's electricity demand forecast legislation directs the State Energy Resources Conservation and Development Commission to establish protocols enabling utilities to adjust their demand projections based on automated load management capabilities by December 2026.

The bill requires the Commission to develop methodologies, in consultation with load-serving entities and resource aggregators, for modifying electrical demand forecasts when automated systems and programs demonstrate reliable load reduction capabilities. The Commission may utilize existing legislative funding to test various technological approaches with participating utilities and distributed energy resource aggregators to validate demand flexibility performance. Additionally, the Commission must evaluate mechanisms that allow load-serving entities to modify their hourly resource adequacy obligations through load management, with findings eligible for inclusion in the integrated energy policy report.

The Legislature's findings note that while the Commission currently incorporates demand-side management impacts into forecasting, existing processes do not fully account for automated load shifting technologies that can respond to grid conditions. The bill aims to address this by creating standardized protocols for adjusting demand projections when automated systems demonstrate consistent load modification capabilities. This builds upon the Commission's existing authority to set load management standards and forecast electrical demand.