Legislative Session number- 82

Bill Name: SF0443

Relating to energyARTICLE 1 CITATION, FINDINGS AND DEFINITIONS"Energy
Reliability and Affordability Act of 2001"; stating legislative findings
relating to energy as a basic necessity and essential for the safety, health and
welfare of the citizens and economy of the state; defining certain terms ARTICLE
2 RELIABILITY ASSESSMENT Requiring the public utilities commission to annually
require electric distribution utilities to report on operating and planning
reserves, available transmission capacity, outages of major generation units and
feeders of distribution and transmission facilities, the adequacy of stock and
equipment and certain other information necessary to assess the current and
future reliability of electric service in the state, requiring annual PUC
reports to the legislature; granting the PUC the authority to ensure
distribution utility adequate investment in plants and other facilities used in
the production, transmission or distribution of electricity and preventative
maintenance sufficient to guarantee reliable electric service ARTICLE 3 PUBLIC
BENEFITS FUNDEstablishing the public benefits fund to fund energy efficiency and
low income bill payment and conservation assistance; requiring distribution
utilities to collect a nonbypassable surcharge from end use customers based on
certain volumetric charges on sales of electricity and natural gas; requiring
the PUC to annually require the utilities to remit to the department of revenue
amounts collected under the surcharge for sales occurring in the previous year,
interest on the amount accumulated to accrue to the fund; providing for PUC
allocation of fund proceeds to energy efficiency and low income programs;
establishing an energy efficiency program, requiring the commissioner of
commerce to select contractors through a competitive bidding process, specifying
contractor eligibility, duties and reporting requirements and the required
contract term; establishing an energy efficiency advisory board, specifying
membership requirements and requiring the board to develop criteria for
selection of a contractor; specifying department of commerce and PUC duties
relating to the energy efficiency program and certain requirements for projects
conducted under the program; requiring the department of economic security to
establish a universal service program to provide bill payment and energy
assistance to low income customers; stating the goal program and specifying
customer eligibility requirements and certain duties of the department,
requiring development and implementation of a comprehensive outreach plan to
increase awareness of and participation in the universal service program and a
statewide uniform computer system to track participant levels, payments,
consumption and other data required for program reporting and coordination of
the program with the federal energy and weatherization assistance programs and
with distribution utility programs providing low income customer assistance;
requiring biennial PUC reports to the legislature, specifying certain report
content requirements ARTICLE 4 RENEWABLES PORTFOLIO STANDARDEstablishing a
renewables portfolio standard and requiring annual increases; providing for
renewable energy credits to be certified by the commissioner of commerce,
requiring consultation with the office of the attorney general in imposing
penalties on retail electricity suppliers, utility distribution companies and
self generators for noncompliance with renewable energy credit requirements;
requiring the department of commerce to implement a system of cost containment
and requiring and providing for the sale of proxy credits under certain
conditions, requiring use of the proxy credits to purchase renewable energy
credits in the market; authorizing department facilitation of the trading of
renewable energy credits with other states under certain conditions; requiring
department implementation rules, policy evaluation and annual reports; providing
for civil actions for enforcement purposes ARTICLE 5 ENVIRONMENTAL
PROTECTIONRequiring owners or operators of electric generating facilities to
apply to the pollution control agency by a certain date for a permit to emit air
contaminants, prohibiting operation of the facilities without a permit after a
certain date; requiring publication of notices of intent to obtain a permit and
opportunities for public hearings and comment; specifying certain permit
requirements and providing for review and renewal of the permits, compliance
rules and enforcement by the PCA; requiring the PCA to by a certain date
establish a schedule of emission limits and a system for accurate monitoring,
requiring periodic facility reports on the results of the monitoring system;
requiring the modernization of facilities and providing certain conversion
incentives; requiring the PCA to establish rules governing the disposal of
mercury and other hazardous wastes captured or recovered through the use of an
emission control method, coal cleaning or another process associated with the
consumption of fossil fuels for the generation of electricity, specifying
certain rule requirements ARTICLE 6 CONSUMER PROTECTIONStating the policy of the
state relating to providing electric and natural gas service to residential
customers; providing for applications for and denial of new service and for
customer moves within the service territory; specifying certain billing
requirements; providing for third party notice and payment; requiring utilities
to offer budget billing plans and payment agreements for the payment of arrears
or undercharges, specifying certain payment agreement requirements and
authorizing utilities to offer the agreements to customers unable to fully pay
current bills; regulating the disconnection of service, specifying certain
notice requirements and providing for certain special protections relating to
age, medically necessary equipment and extreme weather periods; specifying
customer responsibility for the payment of bills; requiring annual distribution
utility reports to the public utilities commission, specifying certain report
content requirements; granting the PUC certain dispute resolution authority
ARTICLE 7 WORKER PROTECTIONS Providing for certain worker protections upon the
sale or transfer of facilitiesARTICLE 8 SERVICE QUALITY STANDARDS
GENERALLYRequiring the public utilities commission to establish service quality
standards to ensure the adequate provision of utility service, specifying
certain standards content requirements and authorizing PUC imposition of
penalties for failure to comply with the standards ARTICLE 9 ELECTRIC SERVICE
RELIABILITY STANDARDSRequiring certain electric utilities to keep a record of
interruption data and calculate certain average interruption frequency or
duration indexes for the previous year; requiring and providing for annual
reports by the utilities to the public utilities commission (PUC) summarizing
various measures of reliability, specifying certain report content requirements,
requiring an initial historical reliability performance report; specifying
certain utility interruption notice and customer complaint investigation
requirements ARTICLE 10 DISTRIBUTED RESOURCESModifying the qualifying facility
requirement under certain provisions regulating cogeneration and small power
production; providing terms and conditions governing the interconnection and
parallel operation of on site distributed generation for cost savings and
reliability purposes; requiring and providing for electric utility filing of
tariffs, schedules and agreements for interconnection and parallel operation;
regulating the disconnection and reconnection of distributed generation units;
prohibiting incremental demand charges; authorizing and providing for utility
preinterconnection studies for network and nonnetwork interconnection of
distributed generation, regulating customer fees; authorizing and providing for
public utilities commission approval of equipment precertification; specifying
certain time limits for processing applications for interconnection; requiring
electric utilities to maintain records relating to applications for
interconnection and parallel operation and to annually report on
interconnections to the PUC, specifying certain report content requirements
ARTICLE 11 CONFORMING AMENDMENTSMaking conforming amendments to certain
statutory provisions relating to intervention in public utilities commission
proceedings, reasonable and competitive electric utility rates, energy
conservation improvements, the certificate of need for large energy facilities,
certain duties of the commissioner of public service and the state energy policy
and conservation report ARTICLE 12 TECHNICAL PROVISIONSRepealing a certain
provision regulating energy conservation improvements and certain rules relating
to the cold weather disconnection restriction and reconnection, disconnection
notices and customer rights, determination of the inability to pay and the
disconnection of unoccupied units(ra)