April 24, 2007, Introduced by Senators ALLEN, KUIPERS and McMANUS and referred to the Committee on Energy Policy and Public Utilities.
A bill to amend 1939 PA 3, entitled
"An act to provide for the regulation and control of public and
certain private utilities and other services affected with a public
interest within this state; to provide for alternative energy
suppliers; to provide for licensing; to include municipally owned
utilities and other providers of energy under certain provisions of
this act; to create a public service commission and to prescribe
and define its powers and duties; to abolish the Michigan public
utilities commission and to confer the powers and duties vested by
law on the public service commission; to provide for the
continuance, transfer, and completion of certain matters and
proceedings; to abolish automatic adjustment clauses; to prohibit
certain rate increases without notice and hearing; to qualify
residential energy conservation programs permitted under state law
for certain federal exemption; to create a fund; to provide for a
restructuring of the manner in which energy is provided in this
state; to encourage the utilization of resource recovery
facilities; to prohibit certain acts and practices of providers of
energy; to allow for the securitization of stranded costs; to
reduce rates; to provide for appeals; to provide appropriations; to
declare the effect and purpose of this act; to prescribe remedies
and penalties; and to repeal acts and parts of acts,"
by amending section 6n (MCL 460.6n), as added by 1984 PA 49.
THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF MICHIGAN ENACT:
Sec.
6n. (1) Not later than 4 months after the effective date
of
this section August 12, 1984, the commission shall commence
hearings to restructure residential electric rates established
pursuant
to under former section 6f. of this act. The
restructuring
may be independent of any pending case for rate reductions or
increases or may be included within any general rate case
proceeding. The revenue impact of the restructured rates shall be
included and recognized solely within the residential class of
customers.
(2)
Rates restructured pursuant to under
this section shall
encourage residential energy conservation and shall be based upon
cost of service and other relevant factors.
(3) The commission shall ensure that electric utilities do not
penalize residential customers for billings which are for more than
31 days of service in any monthly billing period.
(4) The commission shall take steps necessary to inform the
public of the advantages of conservation. In addition to requiring
the total charges for service to be reflected on a residential
customer's bill, the commission shall require electric utilities to
print on each residential customer's bill the total amount of
electricity used, the rate for each block used by the customer, and
the total charge for each block of electrical usage by the
customer. All costs incurred by the electric utilities in carrying
out the requirements of this subsection shall be included in the
cost to serve the residential customer.
(5) Four months from the effective date of the amendatory act
that added subsection (6), each electric utility subject to this
section shall offer a rate to its residential customers which
includes distribution, billing, and collecting for energy service
rendered by an alternative electric supplier at the same
distribution charge paid by full-service customers.
(6) The amounts collected shall be remitted to the alternative
electric supplier based on the rate charged by the alternative
electric supplier times the customer's electric consumption. The
amount remitted may be reduced by the percentage of bad debt
related to recovery of the cost of generation experienced by the
electric utility with bundled service customers to the extent that
the utility can prove that the bad debt has not been included in
the distribution charge.
(7) Alternative electric suppliers shall deliver power to the
electric utility for use of its customers in amounts dictated by
the load profiles used by utilities to estimate consumption for
their own residential customers.
(8) (5)
This section shall apply only to
electric utilities
serving more than 200,000 residential customers in this state.