California Lawmakers Passed a Grid-Capacity Bill That Includes EVs — but Its Key Deadline Moved to 2028

California lawmakers have passed SB 913, a bill that would require state regulators and California’s grid operator to improve pathways for qualifying aggregations of distributed energy resources to count as resource-adequacy capacity. But the latest bill text gives the agencies until June 30, 2028 to do that work — one year later than the June 30, 2027 deadline carried in an earlier version.¹

The procedural distinction still matters. California Legislative Information currently lists SB 913 as “Active Bill - Passed.” The Senate concurred 40-0 in Assembly amendments on Aug. 27 and the measure was ordered to engrossing and enrolling. The checked official record does not yet show gubernatorial approval or chaptering, so SB 913 should not yet be described as enacted law.²

For EV owners, the most important detail is how the bill defines the resources that could eventually participate. SB 913 says “distributed resources” has the same meaning as Public Utilities Code Section 769, and that existing section expressly includes electric vehicles alongside distributed renewable generation, energy efficiency, energy storage and demand-response technologies.¹³

That inclusion does not mean an individual EV automatically qualifies for California’s resource-adequacy market. The bill defines an “aggregated distributed energy resource” as an aggregation of more than one distributed resource that can either supply electricity to the distribution system or reduce electricity demand when called.¹ In other words, the statutory framework reaches EVs, but participation would depend on aggregation and later qualifying rules rather than legislative passage alone.¹³

The final text pushes the implementation date back a year

The Aug. 21 amended text visibly replaces the earlier June 30, 2027 deadline with June 30, 2028. By that date, SB 913 would require the California Public Utilities Commission, working with the California Energy Commission and California Independent System Operator, to enhance existing market-integrated pathways for aggregated distributed energy resources to qualify as local, system or flexible resource-adequacy capacity when they meet the applicable criteria.¹

The same 2028 deadline applies to CPUC recommendations for changes to CAISO’s proxy-demand-resource and distributed-energy-resource aggregation participation models.¹ The reviewed legislative record establishes that the date changed; it does not establish why lawmakers moved it, so the shift should not be read as evidence of a particular political, technical or market motive.¹

The bill also leaves several details to later implementation. It would allow qualifying capacity to receive resource-adequacy credit, including energy exported past a utility meter only to the extent the CPUC authorizes that treatment under conditions it establishes.¹ SB 913 itself therefore does not create a specific EV-owner payment, retail tariff or guaranteed compensation level.¹

That distinction also keeps the bill from being accurately reduced to an export-only vehicle-to-grid mandate. Because an aggregation can qualify by supplying electricity or reducing demand, a future EV-related resource could theoretically contribute through managed load reduction rather than necessarily sending power back through the meter, assuming the eventual rules and qualifying methodology allow it.¹

Device-level telemetry is not pre-approved

SB 913 also addresses the possibility of using device-level telemetry to measure what distributed resources actually deliver in response to a grid dispatch. But the final text does not simply approve that method. It directs the CPUC first to determine the extent to which device-level telemetry can provide sufficiently accurate measurement, and only then to develop standardized requirements for resources settled using that telemetry if the commission makes the required accuracy determination.¹

Those possible standards may cover metering accuracy, data integrity, telemetry resolution and latency, settlement verification, interoperability, and fraud or tamper prevention.¹ The bill separately allows different technologies and multiple devices behind the same utility point of interconnection to participate, including in separate programs, provided the same load reduction or energy export is not double-counted or compensated twice.¹

So the immediate EV takeaway is narrower than “California approved V2G payments.” Lawmakers passed a framework that explicitly reaches electric vehicles through the state’s existing distributed-resource definition, while leaving actual qualification, export-credit conditions, telemetry standards and enrollment mechanics to later regulatory and market implementation.¹³

LegInfo has not yet recorded governor approval or chaptering for SB 913.² If the measure is enacted, the next consequential work shifts to the CPUC, CEC and CAISO — with the key statutory implementation date in the final legislative text now set for June 30, 2028.¹

Sources

Footnotes

1. SB-913 Resource adequacy: aggregated distributed energy resources — Aug. 21, 2026 amended text — California Legislative Information, published Aug. 21, 2026. https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billTextClient.xhtml?bill_id=202520260SB913 Establishes the proposed Section 380.1 framework, the 2027-to-2028 deadline change, aggregation definition, resource-adequacy pathway, export-credit conditions, device-level telemetry requirements and implementation responsibilities. The bill text does not establish that implementation has already occurred or that any specific EV/device qualifies. ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶ ↩⁷ ↩⁸ ↩⁹ ↩¹⁰ ↩¹¹ ↩¹² ↩¹³ ↩¹⁴ ↩¹⁵

2. SB-913 Resource adequacy: aggregated distributed energy resources — Status — California Legislative Information, official bill-status record, observed Aug. 29, 2026. https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billStatusClient.xhtml?bill_id=202520260SB913 Establishes the current Active Bill - Passed status, Aug. 27 Senate concurrence vote and engrossing/enrolling action. The checked record did not yet show gubernatorial approval or chaptering. ↩ ↩²

3. California Public Utilities Code Section 769 — California Legislative Information, current code observed Aug. 29, 2026. https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/codes_displaySection.xhtml?lawCode=PUC&sectionNum=769. Establishes that the current statutory definition of distributed resources expressly includes electric vehicles. Section 769 by itself does not establish eligibility under SB 913. ↩ ↩² ↩³