HB1760

Report Title:

Public Utilities Commission; Cogeneration; Standby fees

Description:

Prohbits public utilities from charging standby fees to cogeneration operators and requires public utilities to increase their power efficiency level to ninety per cent.

HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES	H.B. NO.	1760
TWENTY-FIRST LEGISLATURE, 2002
STATE OF HAWAII

A BILL FOR AN ACT

 

RELATING TO PUBLIC UTILITIES COMMISSION.

 

BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF HAWAII:

SECTION 1. The legislature finds that the State's electrical power system is antiquated, unreliable, and is one of the most expensive systems to operate in the world. According to the U.S. Energy Information Administration, the average price of electricity nationwide in 1998 was 6.83 cents per kilowatt-hour. Hawaii's average cost was 11.56 cents. Additionally, local public utilities average only thirty-eight per cent efficiency, while smaller, privately owned cogeneration plants achieve an incredible ninety-two per cent efficiency. In fact, the efficiency of these smaller plants has been so exemplary that it has led to a concomitant decrease in the demand for electricity produced by local public utilities.

Ironically, instead of improving the efficiency of electrical power production to compensate for the lost demand, public utilities have chosen to assess so-called "standby" fees on cogeneration operators. The standby fee allows operators to remain connected to public utilities but no service or power is provided by the public utility. The practice is an unfair retaliation by public utilities against those who can produce electricity more efficiently than they.

The purpose of this Act is to provide relief to cogeneration operators from the standby fee and to demand better and more efficient electrical power production from public utilities.

SECTION 2. Chapter 269, Hawaii Revised Statutes, is amended by adding two new sections to be appropriately designated and to read as follows:

"§269- Cogeneration plants; standby charges. No public utility shall assess any standby service fee or charge against any customer that operates a cogeneration plant or produces electricity for the customer's own use. For the purposes of this section, "standby service fee or charge" means those fees or charges that are assessed against a customer for staying connected to a public utility and no electrical power is drawn.

§269- Public utilities; efficiency schedule. (a) All public utilities that produce electrical power in the State shall raise their power plant efficiency to ninety per cent by the year .

(b) The public utilities commission shall develop by rule, pursuant to chapter 91, the necessary procedure, time schedules, deadlines, standards, and any other requirement necessary to effectuate the purposes of this section.

(c) Any public utility that fails to comply with this section shall be assessed a penalty of $ for every day of noncompliance."

SECTION 4. New statutory material is underscored.

SECTION 5. This Act shall take effect upon its approval.

INTRODUCED BY:	_____________________________