HB 554 -- Electrical Corporation Construction Work in Progress

Sponsor:  Emery

Currently, electrical corporations are prohibited from making or
demanding charges for service that are based on the costs of
construction in progress on any existing or new facility or any
other costs associated with owning, operating, maintaining, or
financing the property.  This bill removes the prohibition for
clean baseload generating plants and renewable source generating
facilities and authorizes the Missouri Public Service Commission
to make or demand additional charges for service based on
additional amortizations to maintain the electrical corporation's
financial ratios, if in the commission's judgment, it would
better enable the corporation to cost-effectively construct a
clean baseload generating plant or renewable source generating
facility.

The bill establishes the Missouri Clean and Renewable Energy
Construction Act which requires the commission, for rate-making
and regulatory approvals, to treat any capital costs and expenses
incurred by subsidiary corporations, limited liability companies,
partnerships, or other entities that an electrical corporation
forms to acquire, finance, license, construct, own, operate,
maintain, or decommission a clean baseload generating plant, as
if the costs were incurred directly by the electrical corporation
and the plant itself was owned directly by the electrical
corporation.

The commission must convene a docket within 30 days of the
effective date of the bill to consider the relative merits of
various methods to finance clean baseload generating plants and
renewable source generating facilities.

Procedural requirements are specified for an electrical
corporation filing a project development application and a
facility review order as well as requirements and procedures for
when the commission considers the applications and orders
regarding construction work in progress for both rate-making and
regulatory approval purposes.

The commission may disallow resulting preconstruction costs if a
party in a rate proceeding establishes the imprudence of the
costs, but only to the extent that a prudent electrical
corporation would have avoided the costs considering the
information available to it at the time.  Additional capital
costs may be disallowed by the commission if a party in the rate
proceeding proves by a preponderance of the evidence that the
additional costs resulted from a material and adverse deviation
from the approved schedules, estimates, and projections specified
in the facility review order, but only to the extent that the
corporation failed to avoid the deviation, minimize the resulting
expense, or was imprudent in considering the information
available at the time.

The bill specifies that no court of the state will have
jurisdiction to hear or determine any issue, case, or controversy
regarding any matter which has or could be determined in a
hearing before the commission with regard to the act or to stop
or delay the construction, operation, or maintenance of a clean
baseload generating plant or renewable source generating
facility, except to require compliance with any unmet
requirements.

Any state or regional agency, political subdivision, or local
government is prohibited from requiring approval, consent,
permit, certificate, or other condition for construction,
operation, or maintenance of a clean baseload generating plant or
other renewable source generating facility authorized by the
commission, with the exception of the protection of employees
engaged in the construction, operation, or maintenance of a
facility.  State agencies will continue to have authority to
enforce compliance with applicable state statutes, rules,
regulations, or standards within their authority.

Missouri House of Representatives
95th General Assembly, 1st Regular Session
Last Updated November 17, 2009 at 9:25 am