Amendment No. 668

 

 

 

     Amend sec. 6, page 4, by deleting lines 12 through 17 and inserting:

     “1.  “Qualified energy recovery process” means a system with a nameplate capacity of not more than 15 megawatts that converts the otherwise lost energy from:

     (a) The heat from exhaust stacks or pipes used for engines or manufacturing or industrial processes; or

     (b) The reduction of high pressure in water or gas pipelines before the distribution of the water or gas,

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to generate electricity if the system does not use additional fossil fuel or require a combustion process to generate such electricity.

     2.  The term does not include any system that uses energy, lost or otherwise, from a process whose primary purpose is the generation of electricity, including, without limitation, any process involving engine-driven generation or pumped hydrogeneration.”.

     Amend the bill as a whole by adding a new section designated sec. 8.5, following sec. 8, to read as follows:

     “Sec. 8.5. NRS 704.7805 is hereby amended to read as follows:

     704.7805  “Portfolio standard” means a portfolio standard for renewable energy and energy from a qualified energy recovery process established by the Commission pursuant to NRS 704.7821.”.

     Amend sec. 10, page 5, by deleting lines 29 through 33 and inserting:

     “(a) Uses renewable energy or energy from a qualified energy recovery process to generate electricity; and

     (b) Transmits or distributes the electricity that it generates from renewable energy or energy from a qualified energy recovery process via:

          (1) A power line which is dedicated to the transmission or distribution of electricity generated from renewable energy or energy from a qualified energy recovery process and”.

     Amend sec. 11, page 6, line 4, by deleting “energy.” and inserting:

“energy [.] and energy from a qualified energy recovery process.”.

     Amend the bill as a whole by adding a new section designated sec. 11.5, following sec. 11, to read as follows:

     “Sec. 11.5. NRS 704B.320 is hereby amended to read as follows:

     704B.320  1.  For eligible customers whose loads are in the service territory of an electric utility that primarily serves densely populated counties, the aggregate amount of energy that all such eligible customers purchase from providers of new electric resources before July 1, 2003, must not exceed 50 percent of the difference between the existing supply of energy generated in this state that is available to the electric utility and the existing demand for energy in this state that is consumed by the customers of the electric utility, as determined by the Commission.

     2.  An eligible customer that is a nongovernmental commercial or industrial end-use customer whose load is in the service territory of an electric utility that primarily serves densely populated counties shall not purchase energy, capacity or ancillary services from a provider of new electric resources unless, as part of the proposed transaction, the eligible customer agrees to:

     (a) Contract with the provider to purchase:

          (1) An additional amount of energy which is equal to 10 percent of the total amount of energy that the eligible customer is purchasing for its own use under the proposed transaction and which is purchased at the same price, terms and conditions as the energy purchased by the eligible customer for its own use; and

          (2) The capacity and ancillary services associated with the additional amount of energy at the same price, terms and conditions as the capacity and ancillary services purchased by the eligible customer for its own use; and

     (b) Offers to assign the rights to the contract to the electric utility for use by the remaining customers of the electric utility.

     3.  If an eligible customer is subject to the provisions of subsection 2, the eligible customer shall include with its application filed pursuant to NRS 704B.310 all information concerning the contract offered to the electric utility that is necessary for the Commission to determine whether it is in the best interest of the remaining customers of the electric utility for the electric utility to accept the rights to the contract. Such information must include, without limitation, the amount of the energy and capacity to be purchased under the contract, the price of the energy, capacity and ancillary services and the duration of the contract.

     4.  Notwithstanding any specific statute to the contrary, information concerning the price of the energy, capacity and ancillary services and any other terms or conditions of the contract that the Commission determines are commercially sensitive:

     (a) Must not be disclosed by the Commission except to the regulatory operations staff of the Commission, the Consumer’s Advocate and his staff and the electric utility for the purposes of carrying out the provisions of this section; and

     (b) Shall be deemed to be confidential for all other purposes, and the Commission shall take such actions as are necessary to protect the confidentiality of such information.

     5.  If the Commission determines that the contract:

     (a) Is not in the best interest of the remaining customers of the electric utility, the electric utility shall not accept the rights to the contract, and the eligible customer is entitled to all rights to the contract.

     (b) Is in the best interest of the remaining customers of the electric utility, the electric utility shall accept the rights to the contract and the eligible customer shall assign all rights to the contract to the electric utility. A contract that is assigned to the electric utility pursuant to this paragraph shall be deemed to be an approved part of the resource plan of the electric utility and a prudent investment, and the electric utility may recover all costs for the energy, capacity and ancillary services acquired pursuant to the contract. To the extent practicable, the Commission shall take actions to ensure that the electric utility uses the energy, capacity and ancillary services acquired pursuant to each such contract only for the benefit of the remaining customers of the electric utility that are not eligible customers, with a preference for the remaining customers of the electric utility that are residential customers with small loads.

     6.  The provisions of this section do not exempt the electric utility, in whole or in part, from the requirements imposed on the electric utility pursuant to NRS 704.7801 to 704.7828, inclusive, to comply with its portfolio standard for renewable energy [.] and energy from a qualified energy recovery process. The Commission shall not take any actions pursuant to this section that conflict with or diminish those requirements.

     7.  As used in this section, “Consumer’s Advocate” means the Consumer’s Advocate of the Bureau of Consumer Protection in the Office of the Attorney General.”.

     Amend the title of the bill, eleventh line, after “pricing;” by inserting:

“revising the provisions governing the portfolio standard to include energy from a qualified energy recovery process;”.