AMENDED IN ASSEMBLY JULY 17, 2025
AMENDED IN ASSEMBLY JULY 10, 2025
AMENDED IN ASSEMBLY JUNE 16, 2025
AMENDED IN SENATE MAY 5, 2025
AMENDED IN SENATE MARCH 26, 2025
SENATE BILLNo. 256
Introduced by Senator Perez
(Coauthors: Assembly Members Harabedian and Schultz)
Febmary 3, 2025
An act to amend Sections 8386 and 8387 of, to add Sections 762.8 and 8387.6 to, and to add Chapter 8 (commencing with Section 8395) to Division 4.1 of, the Public Utilities Code, relating to electricity.
LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST
SB 256, as amended, Perez. Electricity: electrical infrastmcture:
wildfire mitigation.
Existing law vests the Public Utilities Commission with regulatory authority over public utilities, including electrical corporations, while local publicly owned elecfa-ic utilities are under the direction of their governing boards. Existing law requires electaical corporations, electaical cooperatives, and local publicly owned electric utilities to construct, maintain, and operate their electrical lines and equipment in a manner that will minimize the risk of catastrophic wildfire, as specified. Existing law requires electrical corporations to annually prepare and submit wildfire mitigation plans to the Office of Energy Infrastmchire Safety for review and approval. Existing law also requires local publicly owned electric utilities and electrical cooperatives to annually prepare wildfire 94 SB 256—2—
mitigation plans and submit the plans to the California Wildfire Safety Advisory Board, as specified. Existing law requires that each wildfire mitigation plan include, among other things, a description of the preventive strategies and programs to minimize the risk of its electa-ical lines and equipment causing catastrophic wildfires, and a description of the appropriate and feasible procedures for notifying a customer who may be impacted by the deenergizing of electrical lines, as provided.
This bill would require the commission, on or before January 1,2027, to update a general order to require each electrical corporation to remove all permanently abandoned facilities, as specified. The bill would require an electrical corporation, for areas affected by wildfire that require electi-ical distribution infrastmcture to be rebuilt, to consider the undergrounding of electrical distribution infrastmcture if it is determined to be cost effective compared to other wildfire mitigation strategies.
This bill would require an electrical corporation, for the description in the wildfire mitigation plan of the preventative strategies and programs to minimize the risk of its electrical lines and equipment causing catastrophic wildfires, to include consideration of risks related to the wildland-urban interface. The bill would require an electrical corporation, for the description in the wildfire mitigation plan of the electrical corporation's appropriate and feasible procedures for notiiymg a customer who may be impacted by the deenergizing of electrical lines, to include consideration of enabling residents within a household who are not the customer of record to subscribe to receive notifications related to deenergization events and of communications with public safety partners, as provided. The bill would require that an electrical corporation's wildfire mitigation plan also include a description of the processes and procedures that the electrical corporation use to coordinate communications with local governments within the service area of the electric corporation, and include an accounting of all transmission facilities, including permanently abandoned facilities, and include a plan for how and when each permanently abandoned facility will be removed and the wildfire mitigation measures that are being implemented to prevent hazards, as provided.
This bill would require local publicly owned electric utilities and electrical cooperatives, for the description in the wildfire mitigation plan of the preventative strategies and programs to minimize the risk of its electa-ical lines and equipment causing catastrophic wildfires, to include consideration of risks related to the wildland-urban interface.
The bill would require a local publicly owned electric utility or electrical 94 —3—SB 256
cooperative's wildfire mitigation plan to include a description of the processes and procedures by which the local publicly owned electric utility or electrical cooperative coordinates communication with local governments within the service area of the local publicly owned electric utility or electi-ical cooperative, as specified.
Existing law, the California Emergency Services Act, establishes, within the office of the Governor, the Office of Emergency Services (OES) under the supervision of the Director of Emergency Services.
Existing law requires OES to establish a standardized emergency management system for use by all emergency response agencies.
This bill would require certain electrical corporations and local publicly owned electric utilities, in cooperation with OES and other emergency service agencies, to establish procedures for the coordination of efforts between electa-ical corporations and local publicly owned electric utilities and their representatives and those of emergency response agencies. The bill would require these electrical corporations and local publicly owned electric utilities to assign liaison representatives to work within each state regional local operations-eestef when requested by the state regional operations center, as provided.
Under existing law, a violation of any order, decision, rule, direction, demand, or requirement of the commission is a crime.
Because a violation of a commission action implementing certain of this bill's requirements would be a crime, the bill would impose a state-mandated local program.
Additionally, by imposing new duties on local publicly owned electa-ic utilities, the bill would impose a state-mandated local program.
The California Constitution requires the state to reimburse local agencies and school districts for certain costs mandated by the state.
Statutory provisions establish procedures for making that reimbursement.
This bill would provide that no reimbursement is required by this act for specified reasons.
Vote: majority. Appropriation: no. Fiscal committee: yes.
State-mandated local program: yes.
The people of the State of California do enact as follows:
1 SECTION 1. The Legislahire finds and declares both of the 2 following:
3 (a) To ensure safety and affordability in the face of catasfa-ophic 4 wildfires in the State of California, it is the intent of the Legislature 94 SB 256—4—
1 to find sustainable ways to finance mitigation strategies for 2 ratepayers and Califomians.
3 (b) It is the intent of the Legislature that fire risk mitigation 4 capital expenditures, including the decommissioning of 5 permanently abandoned facilities and the undergrounding of 6 electrical disfa-ibution infrastructure after a wildfire event, be 7 financed in ways that reduce the impact to ratepayers. 8 SEC. 2. Section 762.8 is added to the Public Utilities Code, to 9 read:
10 762.8. (a) On or before January 1,2027, the commission shall 11 update General Order No. 95, as revised on December 19, 2024, 12 by commission Resolution ESRB-12, to require each electrical 13 corporation to remove all permanently abandoned facilities in order 14 to prevent public nuisances or hazards to life or property. 15 (b) The commission shall ensure all applicable safety 16 requirements, including wildfire mitigation measures, apply to 17 permanently abandoned facilities until they are removed. 18 (c) This section does not, and the update required pursuant to 19 subdivision (a) shall not, impact an electrical corporation's right 20 to an easement.
21 (d) For purposes of this section, "permanently abandoned 22 facility" means a facility that is out of service and the owner cannot 23 demonstrate, with appropriate documentation, an intent to place 24 the facility, or portions of the facility, into service within a time 25 determined by the commission.
26 SEC. 3. Section 8386 of the Public Utilities Code is amended 27 to read:
28 8386. (a) Each electrical corporation shall constmct, maintain, 29 and operate its electrical lines and equipment in a manner that will 30 minimize the risk of catastrophic wildfire posed by those electrical 31 lines and equipment.
32 (b) Each electrical corporation shall annually prepare and submit 33 a wildfire mitigation plan to the Wildfire Safety Division for review 34 and approval. In calendar year 2020, and thereafter, the plan shall 35 cover at least a three-year period. The division shall establish a 3 6 schedule for the submission of subsequent comprehensive wildfire 37 mitigation plans, which may allow for the staggering of compliance 3 8 periods for each electrical corporation. In its discretion, the division 39 may allow the annual submissions to be updates to the last 40 approved comprehensive wildfire mitigation plan; provided, that 94 —5—SB 256
1 each electrical corporation shall submit a comprehensive wildfire 2 mitigation plan at least once every three years.
3 (c) The wildfire mitigation plan shall include all of the 4 following:
5 (1) An accounting of the responsibilities of persons responsible 6 for executing the plan.
7 (2) The objectives of the plan.
8 (3) A description of the preventive strategies and programs to 9 be adopted by the electrical corporation to minimize the risk of its 10 electi-ical lines and equipment causing catastrophic wildfires, 11 including consideration of dynamic climate change risks and risks 12 related to the wildland-urban interface.
13 (4) A description of the metrics the electrical corporation plans 14 to use to evaluate the plan's performance and the assumptions that 15 underlie the use of those metrics.
16 (5) A discussion of how the application of previously identified 17 metrics to previous plan performances has informed the plan. 18 (6) A description of the electrical corporation's protocols for 19 disabling reclosers and deenergizing portions of the electrical 20 distribution system that consider the associated impacts on public 21 safety. As part of these protocols, each electrical corporation shall 22 include protocols related to mitigating the public safety impacts 23 of disabling reclosers and deenergizing portions of the electrical 24 distribution system that consider the impacts on all of the 25 following:
26 (A) Critical first responders.
27 (B) Health and communication infrastructure.
28 (C) Customers who receive medical baseline allowances 29 pursuant to subdivision (c) of Section 739. The electa-ical 30 corporation may deploy backup electrical resources or provide 31 financial assistance for backup electrical resources to a customer 32 receiving a medical baseline allowance for a customer who meets 3 3 all of the following requirements:
34 (i) The customer relies on life-support equipment that operates 35 on electa-icity to sustain life.
3 6 (ii) The customer demonstrates financial need, including through 37 enrollment in the California Alternate Rates for Energy program 3 8 continued pursuant to Section 739.1.
94 SB 2566—
1 (iii) The customer is not eligible for backup electrical resources 2 provided through medical services, medical insurance, or 3 community resources.
4 (D) Subparagraph (C) shall not be constaTied as preventing an 5 electrical corporation from deploying backup electrical resources 6 or providing financial assistance for backup electrical resources 7 under any other authority.
8 (7) (A) A description of the electrical corporation's appropriate 9 and feasible procedures for notifying a customer who may be 10 impacted by the deenergizing of electrical lines, including 11 procedures for those customers receiving medical baseline 12 allowances as described in paragraph (6). The procedures shall 13 direct notification to all public safety offices, critical first 14 responders, health care facilities, and operators of 15 telecommunications infrastmcture with premises within the 16 footprint of potential deenergization for a given event. The 17 procedures shall comply with any orders of the commission 18 regarding notifications of deenergization events.
19 (B) The procedures shall include consideration of enabling 20 residents within a household who are not the customer of record 21 to subscribe to receive notifications related to deenergization 22 events.
23 (C) The procedures shall include consideration of
24 communications with public safety partners who have the ability 25 to coordinate with the electrical corporation to provide broader 26 messaging to affected communities.
27 (8) Identification of circuits that have frequently been 28 deenergized pursuant to a deenergization event to mitigate the risk 29 of wildfire and the measures taken, or planned to be taken, by the 30 electrical corporation to reduce the need for, and impact of, future 31 deenergization of those circuits, including, but not limited to, the 32 estimated annual decline in circuit deenergization and 33 deenergization impact on customers, and replacing, hardening, or 34 undergrounding any portion of the circuit or of upstream 35 transmission or distribution lines.
36 (9) Plans for vegetation management.
37 (10) Plans for inspections of the electrical corporation's 38 electrical infrastructure.
39 (11) A description of the electrical corporation's protocols for 40 the deenergization of the electrical corporation's transmission 94 —7—SB 256
1 infrastmcture, for instances when the deenergization may impact 2 customers who, or entities that, are dependent upon the 3 infrastancture. The protocols shall comply with any order of the 4 commission regarding deenergization events.
5 (12) A list that identifies, describes, and prioritizes all wildfire 6 risks, and drivers for those risks, throughout the electrical 7 corporation's service territory, including all relevant wildfire risk 8 and risk mitigation information that is part of the commission's 9 Safety Model Assessment Proceeding (A. 15-05-002, et al.) and 10 the Risk Assessment Mitigation Phase filings. The list shall include, 11 but not be limited to, both of the following:
12 (A) Risks and risk drivers associated with design, constmction, 13 operations, and maintenance of the electrical corporation's 14 equipment and facilities.
15 (B) Particular risks and risk drivers associated with topographic 16 and climatological risk factors throughout the difFerent parts of 17 the electrical corporation's service territory.
18 (13) A description of how the plan accounts for the wildfire risk 19 identified in the electrical corporation's Risk Assessment 20 Mitigation Phase filing.
21 (14) A description of the actions the electrical corporation will 22 take to ensure its system will achieve the highest level of safety, 23 reliability, and resiliency, and to ensure that its system is prepared 24 for a major event, including hardening and modernizing its 25 infrastructure with improved engineering, system design, standards, 26 equipment, and facilities, such as undergrounding, insulating of 27 distribution wires, and replacing poles.
28 (15) A description of where and how the electrical corporation 29 considered undergrounding electrical distribution lines within those 30 areas of its service territory identified to have the highest wildfire 31 risk in a commission fire threat map.
32 (16) A showing that the electrical corporation has an adequately 33 sized and trained workforce to promptly restore service after a 34 major event, taking into account employees of other utilities 35 pursuant to mutual aid agreements and employees of entities that 36 have entered into contracts with the electrical coloration. 37 (17) Identification of any geographic area in the electrical 38 corporation's service territory that is a higher wildfire threat than 39 is currently identified in a commission fire threat map, and where 94 SB 256—8—
1 the commission should consider expanding the high fire threat 2 district based on new information or changes in the environment. 3 (18) A methodology for identifying and presenting
4 enterprisewide safety risk and wildfire-related risk that is consistent 5 with the methodology used by other electrical corporations unless 6 the commission determines otherwise.
7 (19) A description of how the plan is consistent with the 8 electrical corporation's disaster and emergency preparedness plan 9 prepared pursuant to Section 768.6, including both of the following:
10 (A) Plans to prepare for, and to restore service after, a wildfire, 11 including workforce mobilization and prepositioning equipment 12 and employees.
13 (B) Plans for community outreach and public awareness before, 14 during, and after a wildfire, including language notification in 15 English, Spanish, and the top three primary languages used in the 16 state other than English or Spanish, as determined by the 17 commission based on the United States Census data.
18 (20) A statement of how the electrical coqioration will restore 19 service after a wildfire.
20 (21) Protocols for compliance with requirements adopted by 21 the commission regarding activities to support customers during 22 and after a wildfire, outage reporting, support for low-income 23 customers, billing adjustments, deposit waivers, extended payment 24 plans, suspension of disconnection and nonpayment fees, repair 25 processing and timing, access to electrical corporation 26 representatives, and emergency communications.
27 (22) A description of the processes and procedures the electrical 28 corporation will use to do all of the following:
29 (A) M^onitor and audit the implementation of the plan. 30 (B) Identify any deficiencies in the plan or the plan's 31 implementation and correct those deficiencies.
32 (C) Monitor and audit the effectiveness of electrical line and 33 equipment inspections, including inspections performed by 34 contractors, carried out under the plan and other applicable statutes 35 and commission mles.
36 (23) Any other information that the Wildfire Safety Division 37 may require.
38 (24) A description of the processes and procedures that the 39 electrical corporation uses to coordinate its communications with 40 local governments within the service area of the electa-ic 94 —9—SB 256
1 corporation, including fire officials and emergency response 2 officials, as part of the preparation of the wildfire mitigation plan 3 and during a wildfire-related emergencies.
4 (25) (A) An accounting of all transmission facilities, including 5 a list of facilities that are in service, facilities that are out of service, 6 and permanently abandoned facilities that are transmission 7 facilities. For permanently abandoned facilities that are 8 transmission facilities, the accounting shall include a plan for how 9 and when each facility will be removed and the wildfire mitigation 10 measures that are being implemented to prevent hazards, including, 11 but not limited to, induction.
12 (B) For purposes of this paragraph, "permanently abandoned 13 facilities" has the same meaning as defined in Section 762.8. 14 (d) The Wildfire Safety Division shall post all wildfire 15 mitigation plans and annual updates on the commission's internet 16 website before July 1, 2021, and on the office's internet website 17 beginning July 1, 2021, for no less than two months before the 18 division's or office's decision regarding approval of the plan. The 19 division or office shall accept comments on each plan from the 20 public, other local and state agencies, and interested parties, and 21 verify that the plan complies with all applicable rules, regulations, 22 and standards, as appropriate.
23 SEC. 4. Section 83 87 of the Public Utilities Code is amended 24 to read:
25 8387. (a) Each local publicly owned electric utility and 26 electrical cooperative shall construct, maintain, and operate its 27 electrical lines and equipment in a manner that will minimize the 28 risk of wildfire posed by those electrical lines and equipment. 29 (b) (1) The local publicly owned electric utility or electrical 30 cooperative shall, before January 1, 2020, prepare a wildfire 31 mitigation plan. After January 1, 2020, a local publicly owned 32 electi-ic utility or electrical cooperative shall prepare a wildfire 3 3 mitigation plan annually and shall submit the plan to the California 34 Wildfire Safety Advisory Board on or before July 1 of that calendar 35 year. Each local publicly owned electric utility and electrical 36 cooperative shall update its plan aimually and submit the update 37 to the California Wildfire Safety Advisory Board by July 1 of each 38 year. At least once every three years, the submission shall be a 39 comprehensive revision of the plan.
94 SB 256—10—
1 (2) The wildfire mitigation plan shall consider as necessary, at 2 minimum, all of the following:
3 (A) An accounting of the responsibilities of persons responsible 4 for executing the plan.
5 (B) The objectives of the wildfire mitigation plan.
6 (C) A description of the preventive strategies and programs to 7 be adopted by the local publicly owned elecb-ic utility or electrical 8 cooperative to minimize the risk of its electrical lines and 9 equipment causing catastrophic wildfires, including consideration 10 of dynamic climate change risks and risks related to the 11 wildland-urban interface.
12 (D) A description of the metrics the local publicly owned electaic 13 utility or electrical cooperative plans to use to evaluate the wildfire 14 mitigation plan's performance and the assumptions that underlie 15 the use of those metrics.
16 (E) A discussion of how the application of previously identified 17 metrics to previous wildfire mitigation plan performances has 18 informed the wildfire mitigation plan.
19 (F) Protocols for disabling reclosers and deenergizing portions 20 of the electrical dista-ibution system that consider the associated 21 impacts on public safety, as well as protocols related to mitigating 22 the public safety impacts of those protocols, including impacts on 23 critical first responders and on health and communication 24 infrastructure.
2 5 (G) Appropriate and feasible procedures for notiiying a customer 26 who may be impacted by the deenergizing of electrical lines. The 27 procedures shall direct notification to all public safety offices, 28 critical first responders, health care facilities, and operators of 29 telecommunications infrastructure with premises within the 30 footprint of potential deenergization for a given event. 31 (H) Plans for vegetation management.
32 (I) Plans for inspections of the local publicly owned electric 33 utility's or electrical cooperative's electrical infrastmcture. 34 (J) A list that identifies, describes, and prioritizes all wildfire 35 risks, and drivers for those risks, throughout the local publicly 36 owned electric utility's or electrical cooperative's service territory. 37 The list shall include, but not be limited to, both of the following:
38 (i) Risks and risk drivers associated with design, constmction, 39 operation, and maintenance of the local publicly owned electric 40 utility's or electrical cooperative's equipment and facilities. 94 —11—SB 256
1 (ii) Particular risks and risk drivers associated with topographic 2 and climatological risk factors throughout the different parts of 3 the local publicly owned electric utility's or electrical cooperative's 4 service territory.
5 (K) Identification of any geographic area in the local publicly 6 owned electric utility's or electrical cooperative's service territory 7 that is a higher wildfire threat than is identified in a commission 8 fire threat map, and identification of where the commission should 9 expand a high fire-threat district based on new information or 10 changes to the environment.
11 (L) A methodology for identifying and presenting enterprisewide 12 safety risk and wildfire-related risk.
13 (M) A statement of how the local publicly owned electric utility 14 or electrical cooperative will restore service after a wildfire. 15 (N) A description of the processes and procedures the local 16 publicly owned electric utility or electrical cooperative shall use 17 to do all of the following:
18 (i) Monitor and audit the implementation of the wildfire 19 mitigation plan.
20 (ii) Identify any deficiencies in the wildfire mitigation plan or 21 its implementation, and correct those deficiencies.
22 (iii) Monitor and audit the effectiveness of electrical line and 23 equipment inspections, including inspections performed by 24 contractors, that are carried out under the plan, other applicable 25 statutes, or commission mles.
26 (0) A description of the processes and procedures by which the 27 local publicly owned electric utility or electrical cooperative 28 coordinates communication with local governments within the 29 service area of the local publicly owned electric utility or electrical 30 cooperative, including fire officials and emergency response 31 officials, as part of the preparation of the wildfire mitigation plan 32 and during a wildfire-related emergency.
33 (3) The local publicly owned electric utility or electrical 34 cooperative shall, on or before January 1, 2020, and not less than 35 annually thereafter, present its wildfire mitigation plan in an 36 appropriately noticed public meeting. The local publicly owned 37 electric utility or electrical cooperative shall accept comments on 38 its wildfire mitigation plan from the public, other local and state 39 agencies, and interested parties, and shall verify that the wildfire 94 SB 256—12
1 mitigation plan complies with all applicable mles, regulations, and 2 standards, as appropriate.
3 (c) The local publicly owned electric utility or electrical 4 cooperative shall contract with a qualified independent evaluator 5 with experience in assessing the safe operation of electrical 6 infrasfaucture to review and assess the comprehensiveness of its 7 wildfire mitigation plan. The independent evaluator shall issue a 8 report that shall be made available on the internet website of the 9 local publicly owned electric utility or electrical cooperative, and 10 shall present the report at a public meeting of the local publicly 11 owned electric utility's or electa-ical cooperative's governing board. 12 SEC. 5. Section 8387.6 is added to the Public Utilities Code, 13 to read:
14 8387.6. For areas affected by wildfires that require electa-ical 15 distribution infrastmcture to be rebuilt by an electrical corporation, 16 the electrical corporation shall consider the undergrounding of 17 electrical distribution infrastmcture if it is determined to be cost 18 effective compared to other wildfire mitigation strategies. 19 SEC. 6. Chapter 8 (commencing with Section 8395) is added 20 to Division 4.1 of the Public Utilities Code, to read:
21 22 CHAPTER 8. REGIONAL EMERGENCY OPERATIONS
23 24 8395. (a) All electrical corporations and local publicly owned 25 electric utilities that have a service area that overlaps with the 26 boundaries of a state regional emergency local operations center, 27 in cooperation with the Office of Emergency Services and other 28 emergency service agencies, shall establish procedures for the 29 coordination of efforts between electrical corporations and local 30 publicly owned electric utilities and their representatives and those 31 of emergency response agencies .
32 (b) All electrical corporations and local publicly owned electa-ic 33 utilities subject to subdivision (a) shall assign a liaison 34 representative to work within each state regional local operations 35 center that has boundaries that overlap with the electrical 36 coq?oration's or local publicly owned electric utility's service area 37 when requested by the state regional operations center, area. The 38 representative shall complete the appropriate annual emergency 39 management training, sufficient to enable them to perform their 40 assigned role, that is provided under the Standardized Emergency 94 —13—SB 256
1 Management System—framework, and National Incident
2 Management System trainings sufficient to enable them to assist 3 activated emergency operations centers, to the fullest extent 4 possible.
5 SEC. 7. No reimbursement is required by this act pursuant to 6 Section 6 of Article XIIIB of the California Constitution because 7 a local agency or school district has the authority to levy service 8 charges, fees, or assessments sufficient to pay for the program or 9 level of service mandated by this act or because costs that may be 10 incurred by a local agency or school district will be incurred 11 because this act creates a new crime or infraction, eliminates a 12 crime or infraction, or changes the penalty for a crime or infraction, 13 within the meaning of Section 17556 of the Government Code, or 14 changes the definition of a crime within the meaning of Section 6 15 of Article XIII B of the California Constitution.
0 94