Public Service Companies Passed HB464 Public service companies; rates and services for telephone cooperatives. Removes from the State Corporation Commission (the Commission) the authority to regulate the service rates charged by a telephone cooperative to its members. Presently, the Commission must promulgate rules to provide that the service rates charged by telephone cooperatives are nondiscriminatory, reasonable and just. This bill also removes from the Commission (i) the authority to suspend the enforcement of proposed telephone cooperatives' rates, (ii) its jurisdiction over service quality and types of service offerings, and (iii) the authority to investigate the reasonableness or justice of the proposed rates whenever a protest or objection to a rate schedule is filed by the lesser of 150 or five percent of the customers subject to the rate. Patron - Kilgore HB755 Public utilities; certificate of convenience and necessity; acquisition of new facilities. Allows the State Corporation Commission (SCC) to permit the construction and operation of electrical generating facilities which are not to be included in the rate base of any regulated utility. Such construction will be permitted when the SCC finds that such generating facility and associated facilities, including transmission lines and equipment, (i) will have no material adverse effect upon the rates paid by customers of any regulated public utility in the Commonwealth, (ii) will have no material adverse effect upon reliability of electric service provided by any regulated public utility, and (iii) are not otherwise contrary to the public interest. Additionally, the SCC shall give consideration to the effect of the proposed facility and associated facilities, including transmission lines and equipment, on the environment, and shall establish such conditions as may be necessary to minimize adverse environmental impact. The bill has an emergency clause making its provisions effective immediately upon enactment. Patron - Scott HB957 Public rights-of-way; mileage-based fees; costs of relocating telecommunication facilities in public rights-of-way. Establishes the Public Rights-of-Way Use Fee (the "Fee"), to be used for the collection of fees from certificated providers of local exchange telecommunications service for the use of public rights-of-way. This fee will replace any and all fees of general application for use of public rights-of-way for localities whose public streets and roads are maintained by the Virginia Department of Transportation. Localities that maintain their own roads may impose the fee by ordinance. Localities imposing the fee and the Commonwealth Transportation Board will collect, in an equal amount each month, an annual amount calculated by charging an established amount for (i) number of miles of public highway and (ii) number of feet of new installations installed in existing public rights-of-way. The fee is determined by dividing the sum of the total amount from highway mileage and new installations by the total number of access lines in participating localities. The amount is included, as a separate item, on each consumer's monthly local exchange billing statement in an amount of no less than 50 cents per access line. The certificated provider of local exchange service will remit the amount collected directly back to localities that maintain their own public streets and roads and that impose the fee by ordinance. In localities whose roads are maintained by the Virginia Department of Transportation (VDOT), the fees shall be remitted to VDOT and then apportioned back to such localities on a population basis. Cities or towns electing not to impose the fee by ordinance may not impose on certificated providers of local exchange service restrictions on the use of the rights-of-way that (i) are unfair or unrecoverable or (ii) are any greater than those imposed on other nonpublic providers of public services. The bill also establishes a schedule for the reimbursement to telecommunications service providers for expenses related to the relocation of existing facilities when the expense is incurred at the direction of the locality or the Virginia Department of Transportation. The provisions of this bill are not applicable to Henrico County. This bill is identical to SB 577. Patron - Robinson HB1172 Electric Utilities; wholesale and retail competition. Establishes a schedule for Virginia's transition to retail competition in the sale of electricity, as follows: 1. The State Corporation Commission, and entities with interests in electric generation and transmission facilities and the sale of electricity in Virginia, will work to establish independent system operators and regional power exchanges by January 1, 2001. 2. The transition to retail competition and the deregulation of generation facilities (as will be defined and determined by the General Assembly and, thereafter, by regulation of the State Corporation Commission), will commence in Virginia on January 1, 2002. 3. Retail competition, as defined and determined by the General Assembly and, thereafter, by regulation of the State Corporation Commission, will commence in Virginia on January 1, 2004. 4. Just and reasonable net stranded costs will be recoverable and appropriate consumer safeguards related to stranded costs and stranded benefits will be implemented, as defined and determined by the General Assembly and, thereafter, by regulation of the State Corporation Commission. 5. In implementing this bill, the General Assembly and the State Corporation Commission are required to ensure reliable electric service at reasonable and just rates to all classes of consumers with due regard to the protection of the environment. 6. The General Assembly, in implementing this bill, is also required to give due regard to the unique regulatory and taxation structures of all electric utilities and power supply cooperatives in Virginia. 7. The enactment is declared to have no effect on any pending litigation at the State Corporation Commission or in any court in the Commonwealth, or on any power or duty of the Commission granted by law or the Constitution of Virginia. Patron - Plum HB1331 Wireless Enhanced Public Safety Telephone Service Act. Requires Virginia's cellular telephone and personal communications systems providers to collect monthly billing surcharges of 75 cents upon each telephone number assigned by a provider to a commercial mobile radio service number (which includes cellular telephone service and personal communication service) to their customers for the purpose of establishing and maintaining a federally mandated emergency 911 system for these customers. These surcharges are paid into a wireless 911 fund and then distributed to counties and municipalities that operate public safety answering points and to service providers to defray capital costs and operating expenses incurred in providing service to wireless E-911 calls. The bill also establishes an advisory board which will assist in the administration of the wireless 911 fund, oversee the distribution of funds, and advise the General Assembly, no later than December 1, 2001, on the adequacy of the fund to make qualifying payments. The bill has a sunset clause; the provisions expire on July 1, 2002. Patron - Keating SB295 Public service companies; certificate to furnish public utility service; refund or credit for excessive charges. Clarifies the State Corporation Commission's authority to order refunds with interest for rates charged by public service companies that are unlawfully operating without a certificate of convenience and necessity. If the State Corporation Commission finds that the utility is operating without a certificate of convenience and necessity, the rates charged shall be deemed interim and subject to refund, with interest, until the State Corporation Commission has determined the appropriateness of the rates. Patron - Reynolds SB330 Small investor-owned telephone utilities. Redefines "small investor-owned telephone utility" to mean an investor-owned public utility which serves fewer than 100,000 access lines in Virginia and which owns, manages, or controls any plant or equipment or any part of a plant or equipment within the Commonwealth for the conveyance of telephone messages, either directly or indirectly, to or for the public. This new definition shifts these utilities' defining characteristics from gross operating revenues to numbers of access lines. Under current law, these utilities are defined as investor-owned public utilities (i) having a gross annual operating revenue which does not exceed $10 million or (ii) having a gross annual operating revenue greater than $10 million and less than $30 million and that are not subsidiaries of an interstate utility holding company. Patron - Hanger SB379 Study; Senate Joint Resolution 126 (1985) and Senate Joint Resolution 278 (1993); annual monitoring and reporting requirements; abolishment. Extinguishes the annual monitoring and reporting requirements contained in SJR 126 (1985) and continued by SJR 278 (1993). These two study resolutions currently require the Department of Health and the State Corporation Commission to monitor and annually report on ongoing research on the health effects of high voltage transmission lines. The bill also requires the Department of Health to report to the General Assembly on the results of a federal study of this issue expected to be reported to Congress by the end of 1998. Patron - Gartlan SB577 Public rights-of-way; mileage-based fees; costs of relocating telecommunication facilities in public rights-of-way. Establishes the Public Rights-of-Way Use Fee (the "Fee"), to be used for the collection of fees from certificated providers of local exchange telecommunications service for the use of public rights-of-way. This fee will replace any and all fees of general application for use of public rights-of-way for localities whose public streets and roads are maintained by the Virginia Department of Transportation. Localities that maintain their own roads may impose the fee by ordinance. Localities imposing the fee and the Commonwealth Transportation Board will collect, in an equal amount each month, an annual amount calculated by charging an established amount for (i) number of miles of public highway and (ii) number of feet of new installations installed in existing public rights-of-way. The fee is determined by dividing the sum of the total amount from highway mileage and new installations by the total number of access lines in participating localities. The amount is included, as a separate item, on each consumer's monthly local exchange billing statement in an amount of no less than 50 cents per access line. The certificated provider of local exchange service will remit the amount collected directly back to localities that maintain their own public streets and roads and that impose the fee by ordinance. In localities whose roads are maintained by the Virginia Department of Transportation (VDOT), the fees shall be remitted to VDOT and then apportioned back to such localities on a population basis. Cities or towns electing not to impose the fee by ordinance may not impose on certificated providers of local exchange service restrictions on the use of the rights-of-way that (i) are unfair or unrecoverable or (ii) are any greater than those imposed on other nonpublic providers of public services. The bill also establishes a schedule for the reimbursement to telecommunications service providers for expenses related to the relocation of existing facilities when the expense is incurred at the direction of the locality or the Virginia Department of Transportation. The provisions of this bill are not applicable to Henrico County. This bill is identical to HB 957. Patron - Whipple SB687 Electric cooperatives and other public service companies; business activities. Modifies statutory provisions governing public service companies' relationships with affiliated entities, and the business activities of distribution cooperatives and their affiliates, as follows: 1. The Virginia State Corporation Commission is required to approve or disapprove, within 60 days of their filing with the Commission, (i) proposed contracts or arrangements between public service companies and affiliated entities for management, supervisory, construction, and other services, and (ii) proposed loans and other financial transactions between such companies and affiliates. This period may be extended for up to 30 days by order of the Commission. Any such filing will, however, be deemed approved if the Commission fails to act within 60 days, or within any extended period ordered by the Commission. 2. Distribution cooperatives are prohibited from providing, within their certificated service territories, specified energy and engineering services (e.g., sales and service of HVACR equipment, sales of propane fuel oil, etc.) prior to July 1, 1999. 3. Distribution cooperatives are permitted to engage in any activities that (i) have received State Corporation Commission approval prior to February 1, 1998, (ii) such cooperative is ordered or required to undertake by any jurisdictional court or regulatory authority, (iii) were lawfully undertaken prior to February 1, 1998, (iv) are specifically permitted by statute, or (v) are undertaken by any other regulated public service company or its unregulated affiliate within such cooperative's territory. However, under the bill's provisions, a cooperative or its affiliate may not undertake the activities described above within the certificated service territory of another public service company unless these activities are undertaken by the public service company or its unregulated affiliate within the cooperative's certificated service territory. 4. Distribution cooperative subsidiaries are permitted to engage in any business activity not prohibited by law, (i) subject to SCC approval of such business activity, and (ii) further subject to the same limitations on business activity imposed on distribution cooperatives. 5. Any voluntary code or standard of conduct adopted or agreed to by a cooperative relating to limitations on the terms and conditions under which it will undertake a business activity other than one pursuant to its principal purpose will also apply to its undertaking any other kind of business activity that is not pursuant to its principal purpose. Patron - Reasor Failed HB90 Public-Private Transportation Act of 1995 (PPTA). Eliminates participation of the Virginia Department of Transportation as a "responsible public entity" under the PPTA. Patron - Cranwell HB377 Public service companies, natural gas companies; failure to obey Commission orders; penalties. Increases the penalties that may be imposed on a natural gas company for failure or refusal to obey an order or temporary or permanent injunction of the State Corporation Commission. This bill would allow a fine of up to $50,000 for each occurrence or up to one million dollars for a series of related occurrences. The Commission must consider the severity and value of any damage caused by the refusal to obey an order or injunction when determining the amount of the penalty imposed. Patron - Van Landingham HB456 Public-Private Transportation Act of 1995. Prohibits comprehensive agreements or contracts under PPTA for highway construction, maintenance, and maintenance replacement; requires businesses that bid on or enter into comprehensive agreements or contracts under PPTA to be Virginia-registered and prequalified contractors; requires that comprehensive agreements and contracts under PPTA, if VDOT is the responsible public entity, be posted for at least 30 days on VDOT's electronic bulletin board. Patron - Marshall HB746 Railroad crossings. Provides a mechanism to ensure that persons who for more than 20 years have had access across railroad property to otherwise landlocked property shall continue to have access across railroad property. Patron - Bennett HB956 Small water or sewer public utilities; rate changes. Requires customers of small water or sewer public utilities to register individual, written requests with the Virginia State Corporation Commission for public hearings on any such utilities' rate changes. Under current law, the SCC must hold a hearing on rate changes when the lesser of 250 or 25 percent of a utility company's customers request it. Patron - Armstrong HB1046 Public-Private Transportation Act of 1995 (PPTA). Prohibits PPTA contracts and comprehensive agreements for highway maintenance. Patron - Jackson HB1410 Telephone companies; human operator assistance. Every telephone company providing operator services within this Commonwealth shall enable caller access to human, nonautomated operators (i) prior to or in conjunction with the placing of a telephone call and (ii) by a means that is easily comprehensible and accessible. Patron - Hull SB294 Small water or sewer public utilities; rate changes. Requires customers of small water or sewer public utilities to register individual, written requests with the Virginia State Corporation Commission for public hearings on any such utilities' rate changes. Under current law, the SCC must hold a hearing on rate changes when the lesser of 250 or 25 percent of a utility company's customers request it. Patron - Reynolds SB403 Private water and sewer systems. Requires an owner of a private water or sewer system with more than 15 connections to escrow at least 10 percent of annual service revenue to be used for system repairs and maintenance. Patron - Reynolds Carried Over HB485 Public utilities; qualifying small power producers. Eliminates current language in Virginia's public service company statutes conditioning qualifying small power producers' exemption from regulation as public utilities on the requirement that they (i) produce no more than 20 megawatts of rated capacity and (ii) sell any retail output to no more than five nonresidential customers. The bill also requires regulated public utilities to provide open access to their transmission and distribution facilities for the purpose of retail electricity sales by qualifying small producers as defined in regulations adopted by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (in connection with its implementation of the Public Utility Regulatory Policies Act of 1978). Patron - Van Yahres HB739 Small water or sewer public utilities; rate changes. Prohibits small water and sewer companies from imposing rate increases or other changes in rates, fees, and charges prior to public hearings before and approval by the Virginia State Corporation Commission (SCC). The bill also prohibits interim rate increases. Under current law, a small water or sewer company may initiate rate changes upon 45 days' prior notice to its customers and the SCC. Thereafter, a public hearing on any proposed rate change will be held only if the SCC, a specified number of affected customers (the lesser of 25 percent or 250), or the utility itself requests one. When a hearing is ordered, the SCC has the further authority to suspend any utility-initiated rate increase or other changes for up to 60 days, and to declare them interim and subject to refund (with interest). Patron - McQuigg HB876 Private railroad grade crossings. Prohibits closure of certain railroad crossings by railroads without written permission from certain affected landowners. Patron - Abbitt SB396 Wagonways. Provides that when land is divided into two or more parcels lying on either side of the railroad subsequent to the establishment of a wagonway, the railroad has a continuing duty to provide and maintain the wagonway for use by the owners of the parcels. The bill also provides that once a wagonway is established and has been used openly and notoriously under claim of right for 20 years or more the landowner has a vested right in the continuous use of the wagonway. Patron - Trumbo SB688 Electric Industry Restructuring Act. Establishes a five-year, phased transition to full retail competition in the electric utility industry. The bill's plan for transition from the current, fully regulated market to a market in which electric customers may purchase electrical generation service from their provider of choice, includes the following features: 1. January 1, 2000: All electric utilities must submit to the Virginia State Corporation Commission (i) a transition plan for the phase transition to retail competition and (ii) an application for a rate change or an alternative rate plan, either to be in effect until June 30, 2001. 2. July 1, 2000: One or more independent system operators (ISO) and regional power exchanges (RPX) are to be established. 3. July 1, 2001, through December 31, 2003: Enhanced wholesale competition with the following features: (i) electrical generation is no longer subject to rate regulation; (ii) the Virginia State Corporation Commission will continue to regulate transmission (to the extent of its jurisdiction) and distribution rates; (iii) Virginia's electric utilities are required to establish ISOs and RPXs to coordinate electric generation, and to establish wholesale electricity prices; (iv) regulated distribution companies will purchase electric power through an ISO/RPX, and then transmit and distribute electric power to all classes of retail customers; (v) large retail customers, however, are allowed (at their election) to purchase power from their local distribution company, or to contract, bilaterally, with another supplier of electricity; and (vi) the SCC is authorized to coordinate retail competition pilot programs to help prepare all retail customer classes for full competition in 2004. Large retail customers are defined in the bill as electric customers whose representative peak demand is five megawatts or greater during at least three billing months out of twelve. Large retail customers choosing to purchase power from another supplier during the enhanced wholesale competition period must pay the incumbent utility (whose market they are exiting) its net revenue loss, calculated on a per-kilowatt or per-kilowatt-hour basis, incurred as a result of losing that customer. Net revenue loss is calculated by subtracting from that customer's regulated rate (immediately prior to July 1, 2001) an estimated market rate established by the SCC, minus the regulated transmission and distribution rate charged the customer. 4. January 1, 2004: Full retail competition begins in which all retail electricity customers may purchase electrical generation services from the generation provider of their choice. Transmission and distribution will remain regulated, and subject to the regulatory oversight of the SCC. The bill also contains provisions addressing (i) consumer protections, including consumer education programs during the competition phase-in period (2001-2004), (ii) methods of ensuring that all retail customers will have a generation supplier after July 1, 2004, (iii) utility worker displacements resulting from retail competition, and (iv) electric efficiency and conservation. Virginia's incumbent electric utilities (those currently serving the Commonwealth) are furnished an opportunity to receive "stranded cost" payments from July 1, 2001, through December 31, 2003. Likewise, they may be liable for "stranded benefits" during the same period. The stranded cost/benefit formula offered in the bill compares an incumbent utility's estimated revenues from all generating facilities with the SCC's estimate of the annual revenues such facilities must receive to (i) recover costs (including the cost of fuel, operation, and maintenance, and the cost of energy production), and (ii) earn a fair and reasonable rate of return. Based on its estimate, the SCC will order a nonbypassable wires charge or credit (a customer billing surcharge or credit refund), apportioning to each customer its pro rata share of such revenue deficiency or surplus. The bill requires an annual reconciliation of revenue estimates with actual receipts. This "true up" results in a recalculation or adjustment of the wires charge or benefit for the following year. Additional charges are passed along to electricity customers through nonbypassable wires charges, including pro rata apportionment of transition costs, such as the cost of customer education programs, and the cost of establishing the ISOs and RPXs. Finally, the Electric Industry Restructuring Act establishes a 10-member legislative task force to oversee the transition to retail competition from its inception in July 1, 1999, through July 1, 2005. The task force, consisting of four members of the Virginia Senate and six members of the House of Delegates, is directed to work collaboratively with the Virginia State Corporation Commission. Annual reports to the Governor and each succeeding session of the General Assembly are required from the task force, as it reviews the progress of each phase of the Commonwealth's transition through restructuring to retail competition. Patron - Reasor < PREVIOUS | CONTENTS | NEXT >