(a) This section shall be known, and may be cited, as the Accelerating Renewable Energy Delivery Act. (b) The Legislature finds and declares all of the following: (1) The commission, the Energy Commission, and the State Air Resources Board have jointly estimated that the stateâs installed electric generation may need a threefold increase in capacity to meet state carbon-free electricity policy targets. (2) Record-setting renewable energy generation build rates are needed to meet the goals of the California Renewables Portfolio Standard Program and the Senate Bill 100 (Chapter 312 of the Statutes of 2018) target of supplying 100 percent of retail sales of electricity from renewable energy resources and zero-carbon resources. However, these build rates are not achievable without additional electrical transmission lines and facilities connecting new resources to consumers in the stateâs load centers. (3) In recent years, California has seen problems in delivering renewable energy resources and zero-carbon resources to customers, including problems caused by constraints on the transmission system. First, there are generation pockets where the total potential output from renewable energy generation exceeds the capacity of the transmission system to export that energy. Second, there are load pockets where there is insufficient transmission capacity to import the renewable energy resources and zero-carbon resources that are available. Both types of constraints should be promptly fixed so that all available renewable energy resources and zero-carbon resources can be delivered to customers. (4) Reducing the use of nonpreferred resources in disadvantaged communities has been a priority for those communities, and they would benefit from increased access to electricity from new renewable energy resources and zero-carbon resources delivered to serve in-city loads. (5) New transmission facilities have many steps that must be accomplished before they are online and delivering electricity. Major new transmission lines can take more than a decade from initial planning to operation. (6) New transmission facilities should be planned proactively to support delivery to load centers from expected locations for future renewable energy resource and zero-carbon resource development, where those locations are identified in the integrated resource planning process pursuant to Sections 454.52 and 9621 or as part of longer range planning processes pursuant to Section 454.53. (7) New transmission facilities should be designed to minimize the risk of transmission-triggered wildfires. (8) New transmission facilities should be designed to facilitate renewable energy transmission across California to better manage the variability of electrical supply. (9) The Independent System Operator has issued a 20-Year Transmission Outlook that identifies substantial additional transmission projects needed to integrate renewable energy resources and storage for retail suppliers within the Independent System Operator balancing authority. Given the scale of this challenge, there is an urgent need to prioritize and accelerate the substantial effort needed to build transmission projects with long development times. (c) Recognizing that the Independent System Operatorâs Federal Energy Regulatory Commission-approved tariff requires the Independent System Operator to plan and approve new transmission facilities needed to achieve the stateâs goals, it is the intent of the Legislature that the Independent System Operator shall take notice of the state policies expressed in this section. (d) In support of the stateâs policy to supply increasing amounts of electricity from renewable energy resources and zero-carbon resources pursuant to Article 16 (commencing with Section 399.11) and Section 454.53, beginning as soon as possible and not later than March 31, 2024, the commission, in consultation with the Energy Commission, shall provide transmission-focused guidance to the
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