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H. B. No. 375 As IntroducedAs Introduced
128th General Assembly | Regular Session | 2009-2010 |
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A BILL
To amend sections 4928.01 and 4928.10 and to enact
section 4905.67 of the Revised Code to require
certain public utilities to provide billing and
collection services to customers at no charge.
BE IT ENACTED BY THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE STATE OF OHIO:
Section 1. That sections 4928.01 and 4928.10 be amended and
section 4905.67 of the Revised Code be enacted to read as follows:
Sec. 4905.67. A public utility that is an electric light
company, a telephone company, or a water-works company shall not
use a third party for billing and collection services and shall
provide such services to customers at no charge.
Sec. 4928.01. (A) As used in this chapter:
(1) "Ancillary service" means any function necessary to the
provision of electric transmission or distribution service to a
retail
customer and includes, but is not limited to, scheduling,
system
control, and dispatch services; reactive supply from
generation
resources and voltage control service; reactive supply
from
transmission resources service; regulation service; frequency
response service; energy imbalance service; operating
reserve-spinning reserve service; operating reserve-supplemental
reserve service; load following; back-up supply service;
real-power loss replacement service; dynamic scheduling; system
black start capability; and network stability service.
(2) "Billing and collection agent" means a fully independent
agent, not affiliated with or otherwise controlled by an electric
utility, electric services company, electric cooperative, or
governmental
aggregator subject to certification under section
4928.08 of the Revised Code, to the extent
that the agent is under
contract with such utility, company, cooperative, or
aggregator
solely to provide billing and collection for retail electric
service on behalf of the utility company, cooperative, or
aggregator.
(3) "Certified territory" means the certified territory
established for an electric supplier under sections 4933.81 to
4933.90
of the Revised Code.
(4) "Competitive retail electric service" means a component
of
retail electric service that is competitive as provided under
division
(B) of this section.
(5) "Electric cooperative" means a not-for-profit electric
light
company that both is or has been financed in whole or in
part under the
"Rural
Electrification
Act of 1936," 49
Stat. 1363,
7 U.S.C.
901, and owns or operates facilities in this state to
generate, transmit,
or distribute electricity, or a not-for-profit
successor of such company.
(6) "Electric distribution utility" means an electric utility
that supplies at least retail electric distribution service.
(7) "Electric light company" has the same meaning as in
section
4905.03 of the Revised Code and includes an electric
services
company, but excludes any
self-generator to the extent
that it
consumes electricity it so
produces,
sells that
electricity for
resale, or
obtains electricity from a generating
facility it hosts on its
premises.
(8) "Electric load center" has the same meaning as in section
4933.81 of the Revised Code.
(9) "Electric services company" means an electric light
company
that is engaged on a for-profit or not-for-profit basis in
the business
of supplying or arranging for the supply of only a
competitive retail electric
service in
this state. "Electric
services company" includes a power marketer, power
broker,
aggregator, or independent power producer but excludes an
electric
cooperative, municipal electric
utility, governmental aggregator,
or billing and collection agent.
(10) "Electric supplier" has the same meaning as in section
4933.81 of the Revised Code.
(11) "Electric utility" means an electric light company that
has a certified territory and
is engaged on a for-profit basis
either
in the
business of supplying a
noncompetitive retail
electric service in this state
or
in the
businesses of supplying
both a noncompetitive and a
competitive
retail electric service
in this state. "Electric utility"
excludes
a
municipal electric
utility or a billing and collection agent.
(12) "Firm electric service" means electric service other
than nonfirm
electric service.
(13) "Governmental aggregator" means a legislative authority
of a
municipal corporation, a board of township trustees, or a
board of county
commissioners acting as an
aggregator for the
provision of a competitive retail electric service under
authority
conferred under
section 4928.20 of the Revised Code.
(14) A person acts "knowingly," regardless of the person's
purpose, when the person is aware that the person's conduct will
probably cause a certain result or will probably be of a certain
nature. A person has knowledge of circumstances when the person
is
aware that such circumstances probably exist.
(15) "Level of funding for low-income customer energy
efficiency
programs provided through electric utility rates" means
the level
of funds specifically included in an electric utility's
rates on
October 5, 1999, pursuant to an order of the
public
utilities commission issued under Chapter 4905. or 4909. of
the
Revised Code and in effect on October 4, 1999, for the purpose of
improving the energy
efficiency of housing for the utility's
low-income customers. The
term excludes the level of any such
funds committed to a specific
nonprofit organization or
organizations pursuant to a stipulation
or contract.
(16) "Low-income customer assistance programs" means the
percentage of income payment plan program, the home
energy
assistance program, the home weatherization assistance
program,
and
the targeted energy efficiency and weatherization program.
(17) "Market development period" for an electric utility
means the
period of time beginning on the starting date of
competitive
retail electric service and ending on the applicable
date for that
utility as specified in section 4928.40 of
the
Revised Code,
irrespective of whether the utility applies to
receive
transition
revenues under this chapter.
(18) "Market power" means the ability to impose on customers
a
sustained price for a product or service above the price that
would prevail in a competitive market.
(19) "Mercantile customer" means a commercial
or
industrial
customer if the electricity consumed is for
nonresidential use and
the customer consumes more than seven
hundred thousand kilowatt
hours per year or is part of a national
account involving multiple
facilities in one or more states.
(20) "Municipal electric utility" means a municipal
corporation
that owns or operates facilities to generate,
transmit, or
distribute electricity.
(21) "Noncompetitive retail electric service" means a
component
of retail electric service that is noncompetitive as
provided
under division (B) of this section.
(22) "Nonfirm electric service" means electric service
provided
pursuant to a schedule filed under section 4905.30 of the
Revised
Code or pursuant to an arrangement under section 4905.31
of the
Revised Code,
which schedule or arrangement includes
conditions
that may
require the customer to curtail or interrupt
electric
usage
during nonemergency circumstances upon
notification
by an
electric utility.
(23) "Percentage of income payment plan arrears" means
funds
eligible for collection through the percentage of income
payment
plan rider, but uncollected as of July 1, 2000.
(24) "Person" has the same meaning as in section 1.59 of
the
Revised Code.
(25) "Advanced energy project" means any technologies,
products, activities, or management practices or strategies that
facilitate the generation or use of electricity or energy and that
reduce or
support the reduction of energy consumption or support
the
production of clean, renewable energy for industrial,
distribution, commercial, institutional, governmental,
research,
not-for-profit, or residential energy users,
including,
but not
limited to,
advanced energy resources and renewable energy
resources.
"Advanced energy project" also includes any project
described in
division (A), (B), or (C) of section 4928.621 of the
Revised Code.
(26) "Regulatory assets" means the unamortized net
regulatory
assets that are capitalized or deferred on the
regulatory books of
the electric utility,
pursuant to an order or
practice of the
public utilities
commission or pursuant to
generally accepted
accounting
principles as a result of a prior
commission
rate-making
decision, and that would otherwise have
been charged
to expense
as incurred or would not have been
capitalized or
otherwise
deferred for future regulatory
consideration absent
commission
action. "Regulatory assets"
includes,
but is not
limited to, all deferred demand-side
management costs;
all
deferred percentage of income payment plan
arrears;
post-in-service capitalized charges and assets recognized
in
connection with statement of financial accounting standards no.
109 (receivables from customers for income taxes); future nuclear
decommissioning costs and fuel disposal costs as those costs have
been determined by the commission in the electric utility's
most
recent rate or accounting application proceeding addressing
such
costs; the undepreciated costs of safety and radiation
control
equipment on nuclear generating plants owned or leased by
an
electric utility; and fuel costs currently deferred pursuant to
the terms of one or more settlement agreements approved by the
commission.
(27) "Retail electric service" means any service involved
in
supplying or arranging for the supply of electricity to
ultimate
consumers in this state, from the point of generation to
the
point
of consumption. For the purposes of this chapter,
retail
electric
service includes one or more of the following
"service
components": generation service, aggregation service,
power
marketing service, power brokerage service, transmission
service,
distribution service, ancillary service, metering
service, and
billing and collection service.
(28) "Starting date of competitive retail electric
service"
means January 1, 2001.
(29) "Customer-generator" means a user of a net metering
system.
(30) "Net metering" means measuring the difference in an
applicable
billing period between the electricity supplied by an
electric service
provider and the electricity generated by a
customer-generator that is fed
back to the electric service
provider.
(31) "Net metering system" means a facility for the
production of
electrical energy that does all of the following:
(a) Uses as its fuel either solar, wind, biomass, landfill
gas,
or hydropower,
or uses a microturbine or a fuel cell;
(b) Is located on a customer-generator's premises;
(c) Operates in parallel with the electric utility's
transmission
and distribution facilities;
(d) Is intended primarily to offset part or all of the
customer-generator's requirements for electricity.
(32) "Self-generator" means an entity in this state that
owns
or hosts on its premises an electric
generation facility
that produces electricity
primarily for the owner's
consumption
and that may provide any
such excess electricity to another
entity,
whether the facility
is installed or operated by
the
owner or by
an agent under a
contract.
(33) "Rate plan" means the standard service offer in effect
on the effective date of the amendment of this section by S.B. 221
of the 127th general assembly, July 31, 2008.
(34) "Advanced energy resource" means any of the following:
(a) Any method or any modification or replacement of any
property, process, device, structure, or equipment that increases
the generation output of an electric generating facility to the
extent such efficiency is achieved without additional
carbon
dioxide emissions by that facility;
(b) Any distributed generation system consisting of customer
cogeneration of electricity and thermal output simultaneously,
primarily to meet the energy needs of the customer's facilities;
(c) Clean coal technology that includes a carbon-based
product that is chemically altered before combustion to
demonstrate a reduction, as expressed as ash, in emissions of
nitrous oxide, mercury, arsenic, chlorine, sulfur dioxide, or
sulfur trioxide in accordance with the American society of testing
and materials standard D1757A or a reduction of metal oxide
emissions in accordance with standard D5142 of that society, or
clean coal
technology that includes the design capability to
control or
prevent the emission of carbon dioxide, which design
capability
the commission shall adopt by rule and shall be based
on
economically feasible best available technology or, in the
absence
of a determined best available technology, shall be of
the highest
level of economically feasible design capability for
which there
exists generally accepted scientific opinion;
(d) Advanced nuclear energy technology consisting of
generation III technology as defined by the nuclear regulatory
commission; other, later technology; or significant improvements
to existing facilities;
(e) Any fuel cell used in the generation of electricity,
including, but not limited to, a proton exchange membrane fuel
cell, phosphoric acid fuel cell, molten carbonate fuel cell, or
solid oxide fuel cell;
(f) Advanced solid waste or
construction and demolition
debris conversion technology,
including, but not limited to,
advanced stoker technology, and
advanced fluidized bed
gasification technology, that results in
measurable greenhouse
gas emissions reductions as calculated
pursuant to the United
States environmental protection agency's
waste reduction model
(WARM).
(g) Demand-side management and any energy efficiency
improvement;
(h) Methane gas emitted from an operating or abandoned coal
mine.
(35) "Renewable energy resource" means solar photovoltaic
or
solar thermal energy, wind energy, power produced by a
hydroelectric facility, geothermal
energy, fuel
derived from
solid wastes, as defined in section 3734.01 of
the
Revised
Code,
through fractionation, biological decomposition,
or
other
process that does not principally involve combustion,
biomass
energy, biologically
derived
methane
gas, or energy
derived
from nontreated
by-products of the
pulping
process or
wood
manufacturing
process, including bark,
wood
chips,
sawdust,
and
lignin in
spent pulping liquors.
"Renewable
energy
resource"
includes,
but is not limited to, any
fuel cell
used
in
the
generation
of electricity, including, but not limited
to,
a
proton
exchange membrane fuel cell, phosphoric acid fuel
cell,
molten
carbonate fuel cell, or solid oxide fuel cell; wind
turbine
located in the state's territorial waters of Lake Erie;
storage
facility that will promote
the better utilization of a
renewable
energy resource that primarily
generates off peak; or
distributed
generation
system used by a
customer to generate
electricity
from
any such
energy. As used in
division (A)(35)
of this
section, "hydroelectric facility" means a
hydroelectric
generating facility that is located at a dam on a
river, or on
any water discharged to a river, that is
within or
bordering this
state or within or
bordering an
adjoining state and meets all of
the
following
standards:
(a) The facility provides for river flows that are not
detrimental for fish, wildlife, and water quality, including
seasonal flow fluctuations as defined by the applicable licensing
agency for the facility.
(b) The facility demonstrates that it complies with the
water
quality standards of this state, which compliance may
consist of
certification under Section 401 of the "Clean Water
Act of 1977,"
91 Stat. 1598, 1599, 33 U.S.C. 1341, and
demonstrates that it has
not contributed to a finding by this
state that the river has
impaired water quality under Section
303(d) of the "Clean Water
Act of 1977," 114 Stat. 870, 33
U.S.C. 1313.
(c) The facility complies with mandatory prescriptions
regarding fish passage as required by the federal energy
regulatory commission license issued for the project, regarding
fish protection for riverine, anadromous, and catadromus fish.
(d) The facility complies with the recommendations of the
Ohio environmental protection agency and with the terms of its
federal energy regulatory commission license regarding watershed
protection, mitigation, or enhancement, to the extent of each
agency's respective jurisdiction over the facility.
(e) The facility complies with provisions of the "Endangered
Species Act of 1973," 87 Stat. 884, 16 U.S.C. 1531 to 1544, as
amended.
(f) The facility does not harm cultural resources of the
area. This can be shown through compliance with the terms of its
federal energy regulatory commission license or, if the facility
is not regulated by that commission, through development of a plan
approved by the Ohio historic preservation office, to the extent
it has jurisdiction over the facility.
(g) The facility complies with the terms of its federal
energy regulatory commission license or exemption that are related
to recreational access, accommodation, and facilities or, if the
facility is not regulated by that commission, the facility
complies
with similar requirements as are recommended by
resource
agencies, to the extent they have jurisdiction over the
facility;
and the facility provides access to water to the
public
without
fee or charge.
(h) The facility is not recommended for removal by any
federal agency or agency of any state, to the extent the
particular agency has jurisdiction over the facility.
(B) For the purposes of this chapter, a retail electric
service
component shall be deemed a competitive retail electric
service if the service
component is competitive
pursuant to a
declaration by a provision of the Revised Code or
pursuant to an
order of the public utilities commission authorized under
division
(A) of section 4928.04 of the Revised
Code.
Otherwise, the
service component shall be deemed a noncompetitive
retail electric
service.
Sec. 4928.10. For the protection of consumers in this state,
the
public utilities commission shall adopt rules under division
(A)
of section 4928.06 of the Revised Code specifying the
necessary
minimum service requirements, on or after the starting
date of
competitive retail electric service, of an electric
utility,
electric services company, electric cooperative, or
governmental
aggregator subject to certification under section
4928.08 of the Revised Code
regarding the
provision, directly or
through its an electric cooperative's or governmental aggregator's
billing and collection
agent, of competitive retail electric
services for which it is subject to
certification. Rules adopted
under this section shall include a prohibition against unfair,
deceptive, and
unconscionable acts
and practices in the marketing,
solicitation, and sale of such a
competitive retail electric
service and in the administration of
any contract for service, and
also shall include additional
consumer protections concerning all
of the following:
(A) Contract disclosure. The rules shall include requirements
that an electric utility, electric services company, electric
cooperative, or
governmental aggregator
subject to certification
under section 4928.08 of the Revised Code
do both of the
following:
(1) Provide consumers with adequate, accurate, and
understandable
pricing and terms and conditions of service,
including any
switching fees, and with a document containing the
terms and
conditions of pricing and service before the consumer
enters into
the contract for service;
(2) Disclose the conditions under which a customer may
rescind a
contract without penalty.
(B) Service termination. The rules shall include disclosure
of
the terms identifying how customers may switch or terminate
service, including any required notice and any
penalties.
(C) Minimum content of customer bills. The rules shall
include
all of the following requirements, which shall be
standardized:
(1) Price disclosure and disclosures of total billing
units
for the billing period and historical annual usage;
(2) To the maximum extent practicable, separate listing of
each
service component to enable a customer to recalculate its
bill for
accuracy;
(3) Identification of the supplier of each service;
(4) Statement of where and how payment may be made and
provision
of a toll-free or local customer assistance and
complaint number for the
electric utility, electric services
company, electric cooperative,
or governmental aggregator, as well
as a consumer assistance
telephone number or numbers for state
agencies, such as the
commission, the office of the consumers'
counsel, and the attorney
general's office, with the available
hours noted;
(5) Other than for the first billing after the starting date
of
competitive retail electric service, highlighting and clear
explanation on each customer bill, for two consecutive billing
periods, of any changes in the rates, terms, and conditions of
service.
(D) Disconnection and service termination, including
requirements
with respect to master-metered buildings. The rules
shall include policies
and procedures that are
consistent with
sections 4933.121 and 4933.122 of the Revised
Code
and the
commission's rules adopted under those sections, and that provide
for all of the following:
(1) Coordination between suppliers for the purpose of
maintaining
service;
(2) The allocation of partial payments between suppliers when
service components are jointly billed;
(3) A prohibition against blocking, or authorizing the
blocking
of, customer access to a noncompetitive retail electric
service when a
customer is delinquent in payments to the electric
utility or electric
services company for a competitive retail
electric service;
(4) A prohibition against switching, or authorizing the
switching
of, a customer's supplier of competitive retail electric
service without
the prior consent of the customer in accordance
with appropriate
confirmation practices, which may include
independent, third-party
verification procedures.
(5) A requirement of disclosure of the conditions under which
a
customer may rescind a decision to switch its supplier without
penalty;
(6) Specification of any required notice and any penalty for
early termination of contract.
(E) Minimum service quality, safety, and reliability.
However,
service quality, safety, and reliability requirements for
electric generation
service shall be determined
primarily through
market expectations and contractual
relationships.
(F) Generation resource mix and environmental characteristics
of
power supplies. The rules shall include requirements for
determination of the
approximate generation resource mix and
environmental characteristics of the power supplies and disclosure
to the customer prior to the customer entering into a contract to
purchase and four times per year under the contract. The rules
also shall require that the electric utility, electric services
company, electric cooperative, or governmental aggregator provide,
or cause its the electric cooperative's or governmental
aggregator's billing and collection agent to provide, a customer
with standardized information comparing the projected, with the
actual and
verifiable, resource mix and environmental
characteristics. This
disclosure shall occur not less than
annually or not less than
once during the contract period if the
contract period is less
than one year, and prior to any renewal of
a contract.
(G) Customer information. The rules shall include
requirements
that the electric utility, electric services company,
electric cooperative, or
governmental aggregator make generic
customer load pattern information available to other electric
light companies on a comparable and nondiscriminatory basis, and
make customer-specific information available to other electric
light companies on a comparable and nondiscriminatory basis
unless, as to customer-specific information, the customer objects.
The rules
shall ensure that each such utility, company,
cooperative, or
aggregator provide clear and frequent notice to
its customers of the right to
object and of applicable procedures.
The rules shall establish the exact
language that shall be used in
all such notices.
Section 2. That existing sections 4928.01 and 4928.10 of the
Revised Code are hereby repealed.
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