Energy-efficiency portfolio standards

(a) The public utilities commission shall establish energy-efficiency portfolio standards that will maximize cost-effective energy-efficiency programs and technologies. (b) The energy-efficiency portfolio standards shall be designed to achieve four thousand three hundred gigawatt hours of electricity use reductions statewide by 2030 and six thousand gigawatt hours of electricity use reductions statewide by 2045; provided that the public utilities commission shall establish interim goals for electricity use reduction to be achieved by 2015, 2020, 2025, 2035, and 2040, and may also adjust the 2030 and 2045 standards and any interim standards by rule or order to maximize cost-effective energy-efficiency programs and technologies; provided further that the interim goals established by the public utilities commission shall show clear progress toward meeting the State's 2030 and 2045 energy-efficiency portfolio standards. (c) The public utilities commission may establish, by rule or order, incentives and penalties based on performance in achieving the energy-efficiency portfolio standards. (d) The public utilities commission shall evaluate the energy-efficiency portfolio standards every five years, beginning in 2013, to determine if the energy-efficiency portfolio standards established by this section remain effective and achievable and may revise the standards, based on the best information available at the time. The public utilities commission shall report its findings and revisions to the energy-efficiency portfolio standards, based on its own studies and other information, to the legislature no later than twenty days before the convening of the regular session of 2014, and every five years thereafter. (e) Beginning in 2015, electric energy savings brought about by the use of renewable displacement or off-set technologies, including solar water heating and sea-water air-conditioning district cooling systems, shall count toward these standards.