Wyoming HB 258: Public utilities-reliability and transparency requirements.

Bill Text

2021 STATE OF WYOMING
21LSO-0659
1 HB0258
HOUSE BILL NO. HB0258
Public utilities-reliability and transparency requirements.
Sponsored by: Representative(s) Zwonitzer, Clausen, Greear
and Heiner
A BILL
for
1 AN ACT relating to public utilities; providing legislative
2 findings; amending reliable and dispatchable energy
3 standards to require the public service commission to
4 establish reliability and transparency requirements;
5 amending low-carbon energy standard requirements to require
6 the use of certain generation facilities as specified;
7 authorizing the public service commission to revoke
8 certificates of convenience and necessity as specified;
9 amending and defining terms; amending definitions related
10 to low-carbon energy standards and requirements; making
11 conforming amendments; requiring rulemaking; and providing
12 for effective dates.
13
14 Be It Enacted by the Legislature of the State of Wyoming:
15

2021 STATE OF WYOMING 21LSO-0659
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1 Section 1.
2
3 (a) The legislature finds that:
4
5 (i) Wyoming is the largest producer of coal in
6 the United States, supplying approximately forty percent
7 (40%) of the nation's coal, which is used to generate
8 approximately eleven percent (11%) of the nation's
9 electricity that is supplied to millions of consumers in
10 the United States;
11
12 (ii) Approximately two-thirds (2/3) of the
13 electricity produced in Wyoming, most of which is produced
14 by coal-fired electric generation facilities, is exported
15 to other states, ensuring reliability and sufficient
16 resource adequacy of the electric transmission grid;
17
18 (iii) The welfare and economic security of
19 Wyoming and its citizens depend upon the reliability and
20 resiliency of the nation's electric power supply;
21
22 (iv) Electric power markets have likely been
23 distorted by direct and indirect subsidies and will not

2021 STATE OF WYOMING 21LSO-0659
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1 function rationally until policies account for the true and
2 total cost of generated electricity;
3
4 (v) Market distortions have resulted in the
5 undervaluation of dispatchable thermal electric power
6 generation facilities that are now at risk of early
7 retirement, which will further erode the reliability and
8 resiliency of the electric grid;
9
10 (vi) The variability and nondispatchability of
11 wind and solar electric generation threatens to expose the
12 bulk power system to reliability and resiliency challenges
13 without the continued presence of significant dispatchable
14 thermal electric generation;
15
16 (vii) Economics and scaling issues will prevent
17 energy storage technologies from replacing dispatchable
18 thermal electric generation and providing grid support for
19 the foreseeable future;
20
21 (viii) The current system of regulatory
22 oversight is hindered in its ability to ensure the
23 reliability and resiliency of the electric grid because

2021 STATE OF WYOMING 21LSO-0659
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1 markets are distorted by direct and indirect subsidies,
2 which prevent ratepayers from knowing the true and total
3 cost of the electric power they are purchasing. Similarly,
4 subsidies lead to analyses that incorporate premature
5 retirement of thermal electric power generation and do not
6 adequately consider the reliability and resiliency
7 penalties of renewable, nondispatchable energy;
8
9 (ix) In the states served by the Western
10 Interconnection, state policies mandating and incentivizing
11 the deployment of significant nondispatchable electricity
12 sources, including wind and solar, are imposing reliability
13 and resiliency penalties on the bulk power system that
14 Wyoming citizens and industries rely upon;
15
16 (x) It is essential that the state immediately
17 develops additional regulatory structures to ensure that a
18 system is put into place to address the reliability and
19 resiliency penalties being imposed on the state as a result
20 of the deployment of nondispatchable sources of
21 electricity, and that Wyoming citizens and industries are
22 given more transparency about the true and total cost of
23 the deployment of those sources of electricity.

2021 STATE OF WYOMING 21LSO-0659
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1
2 Section 2. W.S. 37-18-103 is created to read:
3
4 37-18-103. Energy reliability standards; enforcement;
5 reporting requirements.
6
7 (a) In addition to the standards established under
8 W.S. 37-18-102, beginning on July 1, 2021, one hundred
9 percent (100%) of the electricity generated or purchased by
10 a public utility shall be dispatchable. Any public utility
11 not meeting the standard required by this subsection shall:
12
13 (i) Offset the reliability difference of
14 nondispatchable sources of electricity through firming; or
15
16 (ii) If the public utility does not offset the
17 reliability difference, be subject to revocation of the
18 public utility's certificate of convenience and necessity
19 issued under W.S. 37-2-205.
20
21 (b) To ensure that the reliability standard specified
22 in