No. HB 1145
Filed under Local Government.
Electric Utility Ten-year Site Plans; Revises information required to be included in 10-year site plans; revises procedures for review & approval or rejection of such plans by PSC; requires electric utilities to submit revised plans to commission under certain conditions; prohibits electric utilities from filing applications for certification of certain electrical power plant sites; revises information commission is required to consider in its review of such plans; increases amount of fee commission is authorized to establish for review of such plans; revises content of rules commission is authorized to adopt for submitting, processing, & approving such plans.
Plain English Summary
AI-GENERATEDThe Public Service Commission must now issue a binding final order approving, amending, or rejecting each electric utility's 10-year site plan, replacing a system where it only classified plans as 'suitable' or 'unsuitable' without binding effect.
A utility can no longer file for certification of a power plant site that isn't already in its approved 10-year plan -- it must get the site into the plan first, and any plan amendment now needs commission approval rather than just notice.
The commission must weigh four new factors when reviewing a plan: cost-effectiveness against alternatives, the benefits of in-state energy sources, regulatory and compliance costs passed to customers, and the adequacy of demand-side management.
Public hearings become mandatory for investor-owned utilities' plans, outside parties gain a broader right to be heard on other utilities' plans, and the maximum review fee rises from $1,000 to $100,000.
AIInstead of a non-binding 'suitable' or 'unsuitable' classification, the commission must now issue a final order approving, approving with amendments, or rejecting each 10-year site plan within 9 months of receiving it.
AIThe commission must determine whether a proposed plan is reasonable and in the best interest of the utility's customers and the state before approving it, and may reject a plan that fails this section's or its own rules' requirements.
AIA utility may no longer file for certification of a power plant site that is not already designated in its current, approved 10-year site plan -- closing a route that previously let an undesignated site count as an automatic plan amendment once a certification application was filed.
AIA public hearing is now required whenever a 'public utility' as defined in section 366.02 -- one of Florida's investor-owned electric utilities -- files a 10-year site plan for commission review.
AIThe commission's authority to charge utilities a fee for studying a 10-year site plan is renamed an administrative fee, and its ceiling rises a hundredfold, from $1,000 to $100,000 per plan studied.
AIThe commission must now also consider a plan's cost-effectiveness against other options, the regulatory and compliance costs it passes to customers, the adequacy of proposed demand-side management, and the benefit of energy resources located inside Florida rather than imported.