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2008 SESSION

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HB 543 Natural gas utilities; alternative ratemaking plan, report.

Introduced by: Samuel A. Nixon, Jr. | all patrons    ...    notes | add to my profiles

SUMMARY AS PASSED: (all summaries)

Natural gas utilities; alternative ratemaking plan. Authorizes any natural gas utility to file a conservation and ratemaking efficiency plan that includes (i) a normalization component that removes the effect of weather from the determination of conservation and energy efficiency results, (ii) a decoupling mechanism, (iii) cost-effective conservation and energy efficiency programs, (iv) provisions to address the needs of low-income or low-usage residential consumers, and (v) provisions to ensure that the rates and service to nonparticipating classes of customers are not adversely impacted. Such plans may include one or more residential, small commercial, or small general service classes, but shall not apply to large commercial or large industrial customer classes. The State Corporation Commission (SCC) is required to allow a utility that implements a plan to recover, through its regulated rates, its costs, together with a return thereon, associated with cost-effective conservation and energy efficiency programs. Utilities that demonstrate certain reductions in annualized, weather-normalized usage per customer will receive the opportunity to earn an incentive of up to 15 percent share of the independently verified net economic benefits created by the conservation and energy efficiency programs. The SCC is prohibited from reducing a utility's profit as a result of the implementation of a natural gas conservation and ratemaking efficiency plan. The SCC is required to report annually on the implementation of the measure.


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