On or after July 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, may, 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, or verifiable large-scale hydropower, as defined in section 16-1. 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, and section 129 of public act 11-80*, including, but not limited to, base load capacity, peak load shaving and promotion of wind, solar and other renewable and low carbon energy technologies, the commissioner may select proposals from such resources to meet up to five per cent of the load distributed by the state's electric distribution companies. The commissioner may on behalf of all customers of electric distribution companies, direct the electric distribution companies to enter into power purchase agreements for energy, capacity and any environmental attributes, or any combination thereof, for periods of not more than (1) fifteen years, if any such agreement is with a provider of verifiable large-scale hydropower, or (2) twenty years, if any such agreement is with a provider of a Class I renewable energy source. 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 (A) include a public hearing, and (B) be completed not later than sixty days after the date on which such agreement is filed with the authority. 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. 7; P.A. 14-94, S. 33.)

*Note: Section 129 of public act 11-80 is special in nature and therefore has not been codified but remains in full force and effect according to its terms.

History: P.A. 13-303 effective June 5, 2013; P.A. 14-94 reworded provision re net costs recovered by electric distribution companies pursuant to power purchase agreements, effective June 6, 2014.