Florida Senate - 2017                                    SB 1238
       
       
        
       By Senator Bean
       
       
       
       
       
       4-01107A-17                                           20171238__
    1                        A bill to be entitled                      
    2         An act relating to utility investments in gas
    3         reserves; amending s. 366.04, F.S.; revising the
    4         jurisdiction of the Public Service Commission over
    5         public utilities to include the approval of cost
    6         recovery for certain gas reserve investments;
    7         requiring the commission to adopt, by rule, standards
    8         by which it will determine the prudence of such
    9         investments; providing an effective date.
   10          
   11  Be It Enacted by the Legislature of the State of Florida:
   12  
   13         Section 1. Present paragraphs (d), (e), and (f) of
   14  subsection (2) of section 366.04, Florida Statutes, are
   15  redesignated as paragraphs (e), (f), and (g), respectively, and
   16  a new paragraph (d) is added to that subsection, to read:
   17         366.04 Jurisdiction of commission.—
   18         (2) In the exercise of its jurisdiction, the commission
   19  shall have power over electric utilities for the following
   20  purposes:
   21         (d) To approve cost recovery by adjustment clause for a
   22  utility’s prudent investments, including rate of return, and for
   23  prudently incurred expenses associated with such investments, in
   24  natural gas reserves if the utility has at least 65 percent
   25  natural-gas-fueled generation. The commission shall adopt by
   26  rule no later than December 31, 2017, standards by which it will
   27  determine the prudence of such gas reserve investments. The
   28  standards must require, at minimum, all of the following:
   29         1. Each natural gas reserve investment is projected to
   30  generate savings for customers over the life of the investment.
   31         2. The total volume of natural gas produced from all of a
   32  utility’s natural gas reserve investments must not exceed the
   33  following percentages of the utility’s average projected daily
   34  burn of natural gas:
   35         a. 7.5 percent in 2018;
   36         b. 10 percent in 2019;
   37         c. 12.5 percent in 2020; and
   38         d. 15 percent in 2021 and thereafter.
   39         3. Each investment must be made in natural gas projects
   40  that have at least 50 percent of the wells within the project
   41  classified as proved gas reserves by the Securities and Exchange
   42  Commission.
   43  
   44  No provision of this chapter shall be construed or applied to
   45  impede, prevent, or prohibit any municipally owned electric
   46  utility system from distributing at retail electrical energy
   47  within its corporate limits, as such corporate limits exist on
   48  July 1, 1974; however, existing territorial agreements shall not
   49  be altered or abridged hereby.
   50         Section 2. This act shall take effect July 1, 2017.