Assembly Bill No. 254-Committee on Government Affairs
March 12, 1997
____________
Referred to Committee on Government Affairs
SUMMARY--Revises certain provisions relating to public utilities. (BDR 58-1283)
FISCAL NOTE: Effect on Local Government: No.
Effect on the State or on Industrial Insurance: No.
EXPLANATION - Matter in italics is new; matter in brackets [ ] is material to be omitted.
AN ACT relating to public utilities; revising the provisions of the Utility Environmental Protection Act relating to a utility that supplies natural gas; revising the reporting requirements of such a utility to the public service commission of Nevada; and providing other matters properly relating thereto.
THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF NEVADA, REPRESENTED IN SENATE AND ASSEMBLY, DO ENACT AS FOLLOWS:
Section 1. Chapter 704 of NRS is hereby amended by adding thereto the provisions set forth as sections 2 and 3 of this act.
Sec. 2. "Federal agency" means any agency, bureau, board, commission, department, division, officer or employee of the United States Government.
Sec. 3. "State agency" means any agency, bureau, board, commission, department, division, officer or employee of the executive department of the state government except the members and staff of the commission.
Sec. 4. NRS 704.110 is hereby amended to read as follows:
704.110 Except as otherwise provided in NRS 704.075 or as otherwise provided by the commission pursuant to NRS 704.095 or 704.097:
1. Whenever there is filed with the commission any schedule stating a new or revised individual or joint rate, fare or charge, or any new or revised individual or joint regulation or practice affecting any rate, fare or charge, or any schedule resulting in a discontinuance, modification or restriction of service, the commission may, upon complaint or upon its own motion without complaint, at once, without answer or formal pleading by the interested utility, investigate or, upon reasonable notice, conduct a hearing concerning the propriety of the rate, fare, charge, classification, regulation, discontinuance, modification, restriction or practice.
2. Pending the investigation or hearing and the decision thereon, the commission, upon delivering to the utility affected thereby a statement in writing of its reasons for the suspension, may suspend the operation of the schedule and defer the use of the rate, fare, charge, classification, regulation, discontinuance, modification, restriction or practice, but not for more than 150 days beyond the time when the rate, fare, charge, classification, regulation, discontinuance, modification, restriction or practice would otherwise go into effect.
3. Whenever there is filed with the commission any schedule stating an increased individual or joint rate, fare or charge for service or equipment, the public utility shall submit with its application a statement showing the recorded results of revenues, expenses, investments and costs of capital for its most recent 12 months for which data were available when the application was prepared. During any hearing concerning the increased rates, fares or charges determined by the commission to be necessary, the commission shall consider evidence in support of the increased rates, fares or charges based upon actual recorded results of operations for the same 12 months, adjusted for increased revenues, any increased investment in facilities, increased expenses for depreciation, certain other operating expenses as approved by the commission and changes in the costs of securities which are known and are measurable with reasonable accuracy at the time of filing and which will become effective within 6 months after the last month of those 12 months, but no new rates, fares or charges may be placed into effect until the changes have been experienced and certified by the utility to the commission. The commission shall also consider evidence supporting expenses for depreciation, calculated on an annual basis, applicable to major components of the public utility's plant placed into service during the recorded test period or the period for certification as set forth in the application. Adjustments to revenues, operating expenses and costs of securities must be calculated on an annual basis. Within 90 days after the filing with the commission of the certification required in this subsection, or before the expiration of any period of suspension ordered pursuant to subsection 2, whichever time is longer, the commission shall make such order in reference to those rates, fares or charges as is required by this chapter.
4. After full investigation or hearing, whether completed before or after the date upon which the rate, fare, charge, classification, regulation, discontinuance, modification, restriction or practice is to go into effect, the commission may make such order in reference to the rate, fare, charge, classification, regulation, discontinuance, modification, restriction or practice as would be proper in a proceeding initiated after the rate, fare, charge, classification, regulation, discontinuance, modification, restriction or practice has become effective.
5. Whenever an application is filed by a public utility for an increase in any rate, fare or charge based upon increased costs in the purchase of fuel or power, and the public utility has elected to use deferred accounting for costs of the purchase of fuel or power in accordance with the commission's regulations, the commission, by appropriate order after a public hearing, shall allow the public utility to clear the deferred account not more often than every 6 months by refunding any credit balance or recovering any debit balance over a period not to exceed 1 year as determined by the commission. The commission shall not allow a recovery of a debit balance or any portion thereof in an amount which would result in a rate of return in excess of the rate of return most recently granted the public utility.
6. Except as otherwise provided in subsection 7 or in NRS 707.350, whenever a general rate application for an increased rate, fare or charge for, or classification, regulation, discontinuance, modification, restriction or practice involving service or equipment has been filed with the commission, a public utility shall not submit another general rate application until all pending general rate applications for increases in rates submitted by that public utility have been decided unless, after application and hearing, the commission determines that a substantial financial emergency would exist if the other application is not permitted to be submitted sooner.
7. A public utility may not file an application to recover the increased cost of purchased fuel, purchased power, or natural gas purchased for resale more often than once every 30 days.
8. A utility facility identified in a 3-year plan submitted pursuant to NRS 704.741 or 704.755 and accepted by the commission for acquisition or construction pursuant to NRS 704.751 or 704.755 and the regulations adopted pursuant thereto shall be deemed to be a prudent investment. The utility may recover all just and reasonable costs of planning and constructing such a facility. [For the purposes of] As used in this subsection, "utility facility" [has the meaning ascribed to it in subsections 1, 2 and 3 of NRS 704.860.] means:
(a) Electric generating plants and their associated facilities;
(b) Electric transmission lines and transmission substations designed to operate at 200 kilovolts or more, and not required by local ordinance to be placed underground when constructed outside any incorporated city; and
(c) Gas transmission lines, storage plants, compressor stations and their associated facilities when constructed outside any incorporated city.
Sec. 5. NRS 704.755 is hereby amended to read as follows:
704.755 [1.] A utility which supplies natural gas in this state shall [, periodically, as] file annually with the commission, in a format prescribed by the commission, [submit to the commission a plan] an informational report which describes:
[(a)] 1. The anticipated demand for natural gas made on its system by its customers;
[(b)] 2. The estimated cost of supplying natural gas sufficient to meet the demand and the means by which the utility proposes to minimize that cost; [and
(c)] 3. The sources of planned acquisitions of natural gas, including an estimate of the cost and quantity of the acquisitions to be made from each source and an assessment of the reliability of the source [.] ; and
4. Significant operational or capital requirements of the utility or other material information related to its provision of gas service in this state.
[2. The commission shall, by regulation, provide for the procedure and schedule for and the contents and method of preparing, reviewing and approving the plan.
3. The costs of preparing the plan are allowable expenses of the utility for the purpose of establishing rates. The commission may provide for the timely recovery of those costs.
4. The application of this section is limited to any public utility in the business of supplying natural gas which has an annual operating revenue in this state of $10,000,000 or more.]
Sec. 6. NRS 704.830 is hereby amended to read as follows:
704.830 As used in NRS 704.820 to 704.900, inclusive, unless the context otherwise requires, the words and terms defined in NRS 704.840 to 704.860, inclusive, and sections 2 and 3 of this act have the meanings ascribed to them in those sections.
Sec. 7. NRS 704.860 is hereby amended to read as follows:
704.860 "Utility facility" means:
1. Electric generating plants and their associated facilities;
2. Electric transmission lines and transmission substations designed to operate at 200 kilovolts or more, and not required by local ordinance to be placed underground when constructed outside any incorporated city;
3. Gas transmission lines, storage plants, compressor stations and their associated facilities when constructed outside any incorporated city [;] except when:
(a) Constructed in dedicated public road rights of way; or
(b) A federal agency, state agency or local government has required the preparation of an environmental assessment or environmental impact statement relating to the construction pursuant to a federal or state statute or regulation or a local ordinance;
4. Telephone and telegraph equipment buildings, their associated facilities and the sites thereof, when constructed outside any incorporated city;
5. Water storage, transmission and treatment facilities; and
6. Sewer transmission and treatment facilities.
Sec. 8. NRS 704.865 is hereby amended to read as follows:
704.865 1. A person, other than a local government, shall not commence to construct a utility facility in the state without first having obtained a permit therefor from the commission. The replacement of an existing facility with a like facility, as determined by the commission, does not constitute construction of a utility facility. Any facility, with respect to which a permit is required, must thereafter be constructed, operated and maintained in conformity with the permit and any terms, conditions and modifications contained therein. A permit may only be issued pursuant to NRS 704.820 to 704.900, inclusive. Any authorization relating to a utility facility granted under other laws administered by the commission constitutes a permit under those sections if the requirements of those sections have been complied with in the proceedings leading to the granting of the authorization.
2. A permit may be transferred, subject to the approval of the commission, to a person who agrees to comply with the terms, conditions and modifications contained therein.
3. NRS 704.820 to 704.900, inclusive, do not apply to any utility facility:
(a) For which, before July 1, 1971, an application for the approval of the facility has been made to any federal, state, regional or local governmental agency which possesses the jurisdiction to consider the matters prescribed for finding and determination in NRS 704.890;
(b) For which, before July 1, 1971, a governmental agency has approved the construction of the facility and the person has incurred indebtedness to finance all or part of the cost of the construction; or
(c) Over which [an agency of the Federal Government] a federal agency has exclusive jurisdiction.
4. Any person intending to construct a utility facility excluded from NRS 704.820 to 704.900, inclusive, pursuant to paragraph (a) or (b) of subsection 3 may elect to waive the exclusion by delivering notice of its waiver to the commission. NRS 704.820 to 704.900, inclusive, thereafter apply to each utility facility identified in the notice from the date of its receipt by the commission.
5. If, pursuant to a federal or state statute or regulation or a local ordinance, a federal agency, state agency or local government has required the preparation of an environmental assessment or environmental impact statement relating to the construction of gas transmission lines, storage plant or compressor stations and their associated facilities outside an incorporated city, the person intending to construct such a facility shall file a copy of the final environmental assessment or environmental impact statement with the commission within 30 days before construction commences.
Sec. 9. This act becomes effective on July 1, 1997.