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General Assembly Raised Bill No. 7156
January Session, 2019
LCO No. 4160
Referred to Committee on ENERGY AND TECHNOLOGY
Introduced by:
(ET)
AN ACT CONCERNING TH E PROCUREMENT OF ENERGY DERIVED
FROM OFFSHORE WIND.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives in General
Assembly convened:
Section 1. (NEW) (Effective October 1, 2019) (a) The Commissioner of 1
Energy and Environmental Protection, in consultation with the 2
procurement manager identified in subsection (l) of section 16-2 of the 3
general statutes, the Office of Consumer Counsel and the Attorney 4
General, shall solicit proposals, in one solicitation or multiple 5
solicitations, from providers of energy derived from offshore wind 6
facilities. The commissioner shall, in any such solicitation, request that 7
each respondent to a solicitation include the following in such 8
respondent's proposal: (1) The respondent's plans for the use of skilled 9
labor, including, but not limited to, for any construction and 10
manufacturing components of the proposal, including any outreach, 11
hiring and referral systems, or any combination thereof, that are 12
affiliated with an apprenticeship training program registered with the 13
Connecticut State Apprenticeship Council established pursuant to 14
section 31-22n of the general statutes, and (2) the respondent's plans 15
for the use of an agreement designed to (A) ensure the use of skilled 16
labor, (B) promote the prompt, efficient and safe completion of any 17 Raised Bill No. 7156
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project, in particular with regard to the construction, manufacturing 18
and maintenance of any proposed offshore wind project, and (C) 19
include a provision that all mechanics, laborers and workmen shall be 20
paid not less than prevailing wage pursuant to section 31-53 of the 21
general statutes. 22
(b) If the commissioner finds such proposals to be in the interest of 23
ratepayers, including, but not limited to, the delivered price of such 24
sources, and consistent with the requirements to reduce greenhouse 25
gas emissions in accordance with section 22a-200a of the general 26
statutes, and in accordance with the policy goals outlined in the 27
Comprehensive Energy Strategy, adopted pursuant to section 16a-3d 28
of the general statutes, the commissioner may select proposals from 29
such resources that have a total nameplate capacity rating of not more 30
than two thousand megawatts in the aggregate. The commissioner 31
may, on behalf of all customers of electric distribution companies, 32
direct the electric distribution companies to enter into power purchase 33
agreements for energy, capacity and environmental attributes, or any 34
combination thereof, for periods of not more than twenty years. 35
(c) Certificates issued by the New England Power Pool Generation 36
Information System procured by an electric distribution company 37
pursuant to this section may be: (1) Sold into the New England Power 38
Pool Generation Information System renewable energy credit market 39
to be used by any electric supplier or electric distribution company to 40
meet the requirements of section 16-245a of the general statutes, so 41
long as the revenues from such sale are credited to electric distribution 42
company customers as described in this section; or (2) retained by the 43
electric distribution company to meet the requirements of section 16-44
245a of the general statutes. In considering whether to sell or retain 45
such certificates, the company shall select the option that is in the best 46
interest of such company's ratepayers. 47
(d) Any such agreement shall be subject to review and approval by 48
the Public Utilities Regulatory Authority, which review shall 49
commence upon the filing of the signed power purchase agreement 50 Raised Bill No. 7156
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with the authority. The authority shall issue a decision on such 51
agreement not later than forty-five days after such filing. In the event 52
the authority does not issue a decision within forty-five days after such 53
agreement is filed with the authority, the agreement shall be deemed 54
approved. 55
(e) The net costs of any such agreement, including costs incurred by 56
the electric distribution company under the agreement and reasonable 57
costs incurred by the electric distribution company in connection with 58
the agreement, shall be recovered on a timely basis through a fully 59
reconciling component of electric rates for all customers of the electric 60
distribution company. Any net revenues from the sale of products 61
purchased in accordance with long-term contracts entered into 62
pursuant to this section shall be credited to customers through the 63
same fully reconciling rate component for all customers of the 64
contracting electric distribution company. 65
This act shall take effect as follows and shall amend the following
sections:
Section 1 October 1, 2019 New section
Statement of Purpose:
To authorize the procurement of energy derived from offshore wind.
[Proposed deletions are enclosed in brackets. Proposed additions are indicated by underline,
except that when the entire text of a bill or resolution or a section of a bill or resolution is new, it is
not underlined.]