Section 454.1.

(a) Except as provided in subdivision (b), if a customer with a maximum peak electrical demand in excess of 20 kilowatts located or planning to locate within the service territory of an electrical corporation receives a bona fide offer for electric service from an irrigation district at rates less than the electrical corporation's tariffed rates, the electrical corporation may discount its noncommodity rates, but may not discount its noncommodity rates below its distribution marginal cost of serving that customer. For purposes of this subdivision, the costs of the electric commodity shall be excluded from both the irrigation district and electric corporation's rates. The electrical corporation may recover any difference between its tariffed and discounted service from its remaining customers, allocated as determined by the commission. However, the reallocation may not increase rates to its remaining customers by any greater amount than the rates would be increased if the customer had taken electric distribution service from the irrigation district and the irrigation district had paid the charge established in subdivision (e) of Section 9607. Further, there shall be a firewall preventing the reallocation of such differences resulting from discounting to residential customers or to commercial customers with maximum peak demands not in excess of 20 kilowatts. The commission shall review the discounts provided under this section by each electrical corporation and report to the Legislature not later than January 15, 2003. The review shall include an assessment of the effectiveness of the discount levels and the rate impacts to customers of the discounts. The commission shall include in its report a recommendation of any changes that should be made to the discount levels in light of other commission approved discount programs.

(b) Subdivision (a) does not apply to a cumulative 75 megawatts of load served by the Merced Irrigation District, determined as follows:

(1) The load is located within the boundaries of Merced Irrigation District, as those boundaries existed on December 20, 1995, together with the territory of Castle Air Force Base which was located outside the district on that date.

(2) For purposes of this section, a megawatt of load shall be calculated in accordance with the methodology established by the California Energy Resource Conservation and Development Commission in its Docket No. 96-IRR-1890.

(c) Subdivision (a) applies to the load of customers that move to the areas described in paragraph (1) of subdivision (b) after December 31, 2000, and such load shall be excluded from the calculation of the 75 megawatts in subdivision (b).

(d) If an electrical corporation seeks to apply the discounts permitted under subdivision (a) within the geographic area described in subdivision (b) of Section 9610, the electrical corporation's resulting rate for distribution service may not be less than 120 percent of the electrical corporation's marginal distribution cost of serving that customer.

(Added by Stats. 2000, Ch. 1042, Sec. 1. Effective January 1, 2001.)