a) Definitions

i) “Commission” means the [STATE] Utility Commission.

ii) “Facility” means all buildings, equipment, structures and other stationary items that are located on a single site or on contiguous or adjacent sites that are owned or operated by the same person or by any person who controls, is controlled by or is under common control with such person.

iii) “Large energy use facility” means a facility that uses or is able to use 20 megawatts of energy or more per month.

iv) “Person” means an individual, corporation, business trust, estate, trust, partnership, association, joint venture, or other legal or commercial entity. The term does not include a government or governmental subdivision, agency, or instrumentality.

v) “Rate class” means the class of service to which a customer is assigned for the purposes of setting cost allocation for utility use.

b) The Commission shall provide for a rate class for large energy use facilities. The rate class shall be separate and distinct from the rate classes for other residential, commercial, or industrial retail electricity consumers and have its own rate class schedule.

i) Any rate class schedule adopted by the Commission for the large energy use facilities shall:

1) Have the effect of reducing or preventing scheduled increases to household and small business service rates due to increased usage or infrastructure expansion necessitated by large energy use facilities; and

2) Allocate the costs of serving large energy use facilities to the rate class schedule in a manner that is equal or proportional to the costs of serving the class; or

3) Directly assign the costs of serving a large energy use facility to the large energy use facility.

ii) Any rate class schedule adopted by the Commission for large energy use facilities may:

1) Take into account infrastructure investment mandates that contribute to meeting [STATE CLEAN ENERGY TARGETS/GOALS]; and

2) Exempt nonprofit or public facilities that would otherwise meet the definition of a large energy use facility.

iii) In determining qualification as a large energy use facility, the Commission may consider including a facility which is not on contiguous or adjacent lots if the facility is owned, operated or controlled by the same person or under common control with the same person, which, if on adjacent or contiguous lots would otherwise qualify as a large energy use facility.

iv) No cost incurred by an electric utility, including, but not limited to, costs associated with increased fuel requirements, generation costs, and transmission costs that are related to the provision of electric services to large energy use facilities and would not have been incurred but for the electric demand of such large energy use facilities, shall be included in any rates or charges approved or allowed to go into effect [under existing code] unless such rates or charges are designed to recover such costs solely from such large energy use facilities or are prorated based on electric demand or are otherwise exempted within this Act.

c) Upon implementation of this Act, the Commission shall assess the extent to which utility costs associated with new loads from large energy use facilities have resulted in cost shifts to other utility customers. If the assessment determines that new service loads from large energy use facilities have resulted in substantial cost increases to other utility customers, the Commission shall include measures to assign that cost to large energy use facilities in setting rate class schedules pursuant to this Act. The report under this section shall be posted to the Commission’s publicly available website no later than 90 days after implementation of this Act.

d) On or before [TWO YEARS AFTER THE PASSAGE OF THIS ACT], the Commission shall submit a report to the [STATE RELEVANT COMMITTEES] of the Legislature and publicly post a copy of the assessment on the Commission’s internet website including the following:

i) The extent to which proposed additional large energy use facilities are projected to increase utility costs;

ii) An analysis of the average household and small business rate savings, supported by the rate class schedule changes pursuant to this Act;

iii) An analysis of potential utility costs associated with utility procurement to meet growing load demands from large energy use facilities’ increased energy consumption;

iv) An analysis of potential impacts to grid capacity associated with utility procurement to meet growing load demands from large energy use facilities’ increased energy consumption and ways to mitigate such impacts; 

v) An analysis of potential utility costs associated with the installation of new transmission and distribution assets to serve new large energy use facilities or expansions of existing large energy use facilities planned within the service area; 

vi) Identify opportunities to prevent or mitigate these costs including identification of rate class schedule changes pursuant to this Act.

e) SEVERABILITY: The provisions of this Act are severable. If any provision of this Act or its application is held invalid, that invalidity shall not affect other provisions or applications that can be given effect without the invalid provision or application.