On or after January 1, 2013, the Commissioner of Energy and Environmental Protection, in consultation with the procurement manager identified in subsection (l) of section 16-2, the Office of Consumer Counsel and the Attorney General, shall, in coordination with other states in the region of the regional independent system operator, as defined in section 16-1, or on the commissioner's own, solicit proposals, in one solicitation or multiple solicitations, from providers of Class I renewable energy sources, as defined in section 16-1, constructed on or after January 1, 2013. If the commissioner finds such proposals to be in the interest of ratepayers including, but not limited to, the delivered price of such sources, and consistent with the requirements to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in accordance with section 22a-200a, and in accordance with the policy goals outlined in the Comprehensive Energy Strategy, adopted pursuant to section 16a-3d, the commissioner may select proposals from such resources to meet up to four per cent of the load distributed by the state's electric distribution companies. The commissioner may direct the electric distribution companies to enter into power purchase agreements for energy, capacity and environmental attributes, or any combination thereof, for periods of not more than twenty years. Certificates issued by the New England Power Pool Generation Information System for any Class I renewable energy sources procured under this section shall be sold in the New England Power Pool Generation Information System renewable energy credit market to be used by any electric supplier or electric distribution company to meet the requirements of section 16-245a. Any such agreement shall be subject to review and approval by the Public Utilities Regulatory Authority, which review shall commence upon the filing of the signed power purchase agreement with the authority. The authority shall issue a decision on such agreement not later than thirty days after such filing. In the event the authority does not issue a decision within thirty days after such agreement is filed with the authority, the agreement shall be deemed approved. The net costs of any such agreement, including costs incurred by the electric distribution companies under the agreement and reasonable costs incurred by the electric distribution companies in connection with the agreement, shall be recovered through a fully reconciling component of electric rates for all customers of electric distribution companies.

(P.A. 13-303, S. 6; P.A. 14-94, S. 32.)

History: P.A. 13-303 effective June 5, 2013; P.A. 14-94 changed “may” to “shall” re commissioner's solicitation of proposals from renewable energy sources providers and reworded provision re net costs recovered by electric distribution companies pursuant to power purchase agreements, effective June 6, 2014.