New Hampshire SB 54: relative to purchased power agreements for electric distribution utilities.

Bill Text

Rep. McGhee, Hills. 35
Rep. Vose, Rock. 5
Rep. Cormen, Graf. 15
Rep. Bernardy, Rock. 36
Rep. Summers, Rock. 20
May 1, 2023
2023-1586h
10/05
Amendment to SB 54-FN
Amend the bill by replacing section 2 with the following:
2 New Section; Purchase Power Agreements. Amend RSA 374-F by inserting after section 10
the following new section:
374-F:11 Purchased Power Agreements.
I. Investor-owned electric distribution utilities may elect to develop and, no later than June
30, 2025, issue a request for proposals for multi-year agreements for energy, in conjunction with or
independent of any attendant environmental attributes from electric energy sources.
(a) The electric distribution utilities may issue requests for proposals alone or in
conjunction with another New Hampshire utility or utilities, or with out of state utilities subject to
consultation with the department of energy and the office of the consumer advocate with resulting
contracts approved by the public utilities commission.
(b) Any costs associated with transmission system upgrades required for interconnecting
new or incremental electric energy sources shall be included in responses to the request for proposals
and power purchase agreements.
(c) Electric distribution utilities shall consult with the department of energy and the
office of the consumer advocate on all issues related to such requests for proposals, prior to issuance,
including the criteria and scoring to be used in the review of responses to the request for proposals.
The department and the office of the consumer advocate shall provide any such consultation within
60 days from the date each draft request for proposals is provided for its review. Within this period
the utilities shall solicit public comment.
(d) The department of energy may hire consultants to aid in the development of requests
for proposals and assess the costs of such consultants to the relevant distribution electric utility or
utilities as appropriate and equitable on a case-by-case basis. The department shall not enter into
any contract under this section in an amount greater than $10,000, including any contract extension,
without the approval of the governor and council.
(e) Electric distribution utilities shall engage an independent third party to create
appropriate request for proposals and to perform cost benefit analysis of any agreements received in
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Amendment to SB 54-FN
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response to the request for proposals. Such analysis shall be provided to the commission as part of
the utilities’ petition for approval of any purchase power agreements resulting from the RFP process.
(f) Each investor-owned electric distribution utility may propose more than one
agreement, with varying lengths and terms, alone or in conjunction with another utility or utilities,
resulting from these requests for proposals, provided that:
(1) Agreements shall not exceed 20 years in length.
(2) Collectively among all investor-owned electric distribution utilities, agreements
will be eligible for approval for up to a total not to exceed 2 million megawatt hours, annually,
apportioned to each investor-owned electric distribution utility based upon kWh sales to ultimate
customers as reported on the utilities' FERC Form 1. No electric distribution utility may contract in
excess of its apportionment.
(g) All megawatt hours procured through agreements made pursuant to this section
shall come from new or incremental electric energy sources.
(h) For the purposes of this section:
(1) “New electric energy sources” are those that are able to provide additional energy
into the ISO-NE regional market that first began commercial operation on or after September 1,
2023, at a site where no facility previously existed.
(2) “Incremental electric energy sources” are those that as a result of new
construction on or after September 1, 2023, are capable of providing additional energy into the ISO-
NE regional market.
(i) Electric distribution utilities shall recover any prudently incurred costs related to
complying with this section through distribution rates.
II. Any investor-owned electric distribution utility electing to enter into an agreement
pursuant to this section shall petition the public utilities commission for authorization to enter the
agreement no later than June 30, 2026.
(a) Upon the petition of one or more electric distribution utilities, and after notice and
hearing, the public utilities commission may authorize such utility or utilities to enter into multi-
year agreements with new or incremental electric energy sources up to a total of 2 million megawatt
hours statewide, on an annual basis, if it finds such agreements to be just and reasonable and in the
public interest.
(b) The public utilities commission shall review and render a decision on any proposed
agreement no later than 9 months after submission of the agreement with the commission.
III. In reviewing ag