Electricity: renewable energy subscription programs.

Assembly Member Ward proposes comprehensive changes to California's customer renewable energy subscription programs, establishing new parameters for community solar and storage projects while expanding access for low-income residents. The legislation requires facilities participating in these programs to combine solar generation with energy storage systems providing at least four hours of storage capacity, while capping individual facilities at 5 megawatts for both generation and storage.

The bill mandates that at least 51 percent of program capacity serve low-income customers and requires facilities to be located within subscribers' local reliability areas. Participants receive bill credits based on avoided costs, including energy supply, transmission, distribution capacity, and greenhouse gas emissions reduction values. The Public Utilities Commission must evaluate whether programs meet these requirements starting two years after adoption, with authority to modify or terminate non-compliant programs.

To ensure proper oversight, program administrators must submit quarterly reports detailing participant usage, project locations, low-income participation rates, and other operational metrics during the first two years. The program will end when reaching either 4 gigawatts of total capacity or seven years of operation, whichever occurs first. The Energy Commission must also evaluate these projects as load-modifying resources by September 2026 to determine their impact on resource adequacy obligations for load-serving entities.