BILL REQ. #:  H-1450.1 

Read first time 02/04/09.   Referred to Committee on Technology, Energy & Communications.

     AN ACT Relating to stabilizing renewable energy resources; amending RCW 19.280.030; and creating a new section.

BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF WASHINGTON:

NEW SECTION.  Sec. 1   The legislature finds that more alternative sources of energy, such as wind and solar power, are being utilized in Washington and these new sources require that additional power generating capacity be secured in order to ensure that power can still be delivered when these intermittent sources are not available. The purpose of this act is to provide a mechanism for utilities to demonstrate what sources of energy will be used when intermittent alternative energy is not available.

Sec. 2   RCW 19.280.030 and 2006 c 195 s 3 are each amended to read as follows:
     Each electric utility must develop a plan consistent with this section.
     (1) Utilities with more than twenty-five thousand customers that are not full requirements customers shall develop or update an integrated resource plan by September 1, 2008. At a minimum, progress reports reflecting changing conditions and the progress of the integrated resource plan must be produced every two years thereafter. An updated integrated resource plan must be developed at least every four years subsequent to the 2008 integrated resource plan. The integrated resource plan, at a minimum, must include:
     (a) A range of forecasts, for at least the next ten years, of projected customer demand which takes into account econometric data and customer usage;
     (b) An assessment of commercially available conservation and efficiency resources. Such assessment may include, as appropriate, high efficiency cogeneration, demand response and load management programs, and currently employed and new policies and programs needed to obtain the conservation and efficiency resources;
     (c) An assessment of commercially available, utility scale renewable and nonrenewable generating technologies;
     (d) A comparative evaluation of renewable and nonrenewable generating resources, including transmission and distribution delivery costs, and conservation and efficiency resources using "lowest reasonable cost" as a criterion;
     (e) The integration of the demand forecasts and resource evaluations into a long-range assessment describing the mix of supply side generating resources and conservation and efficiency resources that will meet current and projected needs at the lowest reasonable cost and risk to the utility and its ratepayers; ((and))
     (f) A short-term plan identifying the specific actions to be taken by the utility consistent with the long-range integrated resource plan; and
     (g) An evaluation and short-term plan indicating what generating resources will be used by the utility to stabilize intermittent renewable resources such as wind and solar power.
     (2) All other utilities may elect to develop a full integrated resource plan as set forth in subsection (1) of this section or, at a minimum, shall develop a resource plan that:
     (a) Estimates loads for the next five and ten years;
     (b) Enumerates the resources that will be maintained and/or acquired to serve those loads; and
     (c) Explains why the resources in (b) of this subsection were chosen and, if the resources chosen are not renewable resources or conservation and efficiency resources, why such a decision was made.
     (3) An electric utility that is required to develop a resource plan under this section must complete its initial plan by September 1, 2008.
     (4) Resource plans developed under this section must be updated on a regular basis, at a minimum on intervals of two years.
     (5) Plans shall not be a basis to bring legal action against electric utilities.
     (6) Each electric utility shall publish its final plan either as part of an annual report or as a separate document available to the public. The report may be in an electronic form.