(a) Pursuant to Section 80820, the department may establish a schedule and mechanism for a local publicly owned electric utility to voluntarily obtain from the department eligible energy resources to be acquired by the department through its central procurement function on a contract-by-contract basis.
(b) In order to voluntarily participate, a local publicly owned electric utility shall commit to the imposition of a nonbypassable charge on its ratepayers sufficient at all times to fund its participation and on terms and conditions as set forth in Section 80826.