JOINT LETTER OF SUPPORT
Subject: Senate Bill 410, THE POWERING UP CALIFORNIA ACT (Becker, 2023)
From: Electric vehicle manufacturers, charging infrastructure developers and vital electric transportation industry stakeholders
To: California legislators and staff
Date: June 6, 2023
Summary
We, the undersigned, write in support of SB 410, the Powering Up California Act, which recognizes the importance of synching up timing of the provision of electrical power to electric vehicle charging depots and stations with the compliance timelines of California’s zero-emission goals and regulations. In particular, we highlight California’s Advanced Clean Cars II (ACCII), Advanced Clean Truck (ACT) and Advanced Clean Fleet (ACF) regulations.
Discussion
- Vehicle manufacturers, truck owners and fleets, and charging infrastructure developers report the biggest challenge to complying with ACCII, ACT and ACF regulations is the fact that utilities often cannot deliver power in time for obligated parties to meet regulatory compliance timelines.
- Fleet customers are delaying taking possession of their orders for electric semi-trucks – that have already been purchased from commercial truck manufacturers – because they can’t energize their charging stations.
- Operators of passenger vehicle charging networks have long-reported similar challenges (many charging stations already in the ground in California can’t be used because they can’t get power).
- Under current rules, utilities cannot make timely investments in new substations and other significant grid equipment in order to increase capacity of the grid to accommodate high-powered EV charging necessary to meet our climate, air quality and equity goals and requirements (including ACCII, ACT and ACF regulations).
- The ICCT estimates that to electrify trucks, we will need 2,747 megawatts of distribution capacity by 2030 in Los Angeles, San Bernardino, San Diego, and Riverside counties alone, roughly equivalent to the power requirement of 550 Dodger stadiums or 137 small towns.
- SB 410 would:
- Make it state policy that investor-owned utilities should do everything needed to prepare the grid for the transportation and building electrification needed to meet “state decarbonization goals and federal, state, regional, and local air quality and decarbonization standards, plans, and regulations.”
- Set a deadline for the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) to establish average and maximum target interconnection timelines:
- Requires the utilities to report on their compliance with those timelines.
- Direct the CPUC to take any remedial actions needed to ensure compliance with those deadlines.
- Requires the utilities to report on workforce needs to comply with SB 410 and to hire accordingly.
- Directs utilities’ future grid planning to align with federal, state, regional, and local decarbonization and air quality goals, standards, and regulations.
- Provides for cost recovery of associated investments via a balancing account.
Note: This complements the proposal of necessary investments in utility General Rate Cases (GRCs), as required by AB 2700. SCE’s current GRC includes investments to accommodate high EV deployment as required by AB 2700, but the other utilities’ GRCs were filed before AB 2700 went into effect, and we can’t afford to wait for the next four-year GRC cycle to propose such investments. The balancing account SB 410 establishes would allow SDG&E and PG&E to propose and recover the necessary costs sooner and will allow SCE to propose and recover costs associated with investments in the future that could not be predicted when it developed its 2023 GRC proposal.
Conclusion
Therefore, we, the undersigned – including vehicle manufacturers, charging infrastructure developers, trade groups and stakeholders vested in meeting the state of California’s climate goals and complying with its zero-emission vehicle regulations – hereby support the passage of SB 410, the Powering Up California Act.