Relating to energy; expanding the authority of the public utilities commission to approve or disapprove power purchase contracts, investments or expenditures relating to the renewable energy objectives and wind energy resources management, requiring the commission upon petition to approve rate schedules providing for the automatic adjustment of charges to recover the expenses or costs for construction of transmission facilities to satisfy renewable energy objectives under certain conditions, requiring public utilities by a certain date to file applications for certificates of need for transmission upgrades and new transmission facilities necessary to support renewable resources; exempting certain wind energy conversion systems from certificate of need requirements; requiring the PUC to order electric utilities to participate in a statewide wind integration study, requiring the utilities to jointly contract with an independent firm to be selected by the commissioner of commerce to conduct an engineering study of the impacts on reliability and operating costs of increasing wind capacity and to identify and develop options for utilities to use in managing the intermittent nature of wind resources, requiring the commissioner to manage the study process and to appoint a group of stakeholders with experience in engineering and power systems or wind energy to review the study, requiring completion of the study by a certain date, authorizing recovery of study costs; requiring electric utilities to incorporate the findings of the study into integrated resource plans
(je)