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Each electric utility must develop a plan consistent with this section.
Utilities with more than 25,000 customers that are not full requirements customers must 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 range of forecasts, for at least the next 10 years or longer, of projected customer demand which takes into account econometric data and customer usage;
An assessment of commercially available conservation and efficiency resources, as informed, as applicable, by the assessment for conservation potential under RCW 19.285.040 for the planning horizon consistent with (a) of this subsection. Such assessment may include, as appropriate, opportunities for development of combined heat and power as an energy and capacity resource, demand response and load management programs, and currently employed and new policies and programs needed to obtain the conservation and efficiency resources;
An assessment of commercially available, utility scale renewable and nonrenewable generating technologies including a comparison of the benefits and risks of purchasing power or building new resources;
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;
An assessment of methods, commercially available technologies, or facilities for integrating renewable resources, including but not limited to battery storage and pumped storage, and addressing overgeneration events, if applicable to the utility's resource portfolio;
An assessment and 20-year forecast of the availability of and requirements for regional generation and transmission capacity to provide and deliver electricity to the utility's customers and to meet the requirements of chapter 288, Laws of 2019 and the state's greenhouse gas emissions reduction limits in RCW 70A.45.020. The transmission assessment must identify the utility's expected needs to acquire new long-term firm rights, develop new, or expand or upgrade existing, bulk transmission facilities consistent with the requirements of this section and reliability standards;
If an electric utility operates transmission assets rated at 115,000 volts or greater, the transmission assessment must take into account opportunities to make more effective use of existing transmission capacity through improved transmission system operating practices, energy efficiency, demand response, grid modernization, nonwires solutions, and other programs if applicable. The transmission assessment for such an electric utility must examine which of the utility's transmission lines can be reconductored with advanced conductors;
An electric utility that relies entirely or primarily on a contract for transmission service to provide necessary transmission services may comply with the transmission requirements of this subsection by requesting that the counterparty to the transmission service contract include the provisions of chapter 288, Laws of 2019 and chapter 70A.45 RCW as public policy mandates in the transmission service provider's process for assessing transmission need, and planning and acquiring necessary transmission capacity;
An electric utility may comply with the requirements of this subsection (1)(f) by relying on and incorporating the results of a separate transmission assessment process, conducted individually or jointly with other utilities and transmission system users, if that assessment process meets the requirements of this subsection;
A determination of resource adequacy metrics for the resource plan consistent with the forecasts;
A forecast of distributed energy resources that may be installed by the utility's customers and an assessment of their effect on the utility's load and operations;
The integration of the demand forecasts, resource evaluations, and resource adequacy requirement 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, including mitigating overgeneration events and implementing RCW 19.405.030 through 19.405.050, at the lowest reasonable cost and risk to the utility and its customers, while maintaining and protecting the safety, reliable operation, and balancing of its electric system;
An assessment, informed by the cumulative impact analysis conducted under RCW 19.405.140, of: Energy and nonenergy benefits and the avoidance and reductions of burdens to vulnerable populations and highly impacted communities; long-term and short-term public health and environmental benefits, costs, and risks; and energy security and risk;
A 10-year clean energy action plan for implementing RCW 19.405.030 through 19.405.050 at the lowest reasonable cost, and at an acceptable resource adequacy standard, that identifies the specific actions to be taken by the utility consistent with the long‑range integrated resource plan; and
An analysis of how the plan accounts for:
Modeled load forecast scenarios that consider the anticipated levels of zero emissions vehicle use in a utility's service area, including anticipated levels of zero emissions vehicle use in the utility's service area provided in RCW 47.01.520, if feasible;
Analysis, research, findings, recommendations, actions, and any other relevant information found in the electrification of transportation plans submitted under RCW 35.92.450, 54.16.430, and 80.28.365; and
Assumed use case forecasts and the associated energy impacts. Electric utilities may, but are not required to, use the forecasts generated by the mapping and forecasting tool created in RCW 47.01.520. This subsection (1)(m)(iii) applies only to plans due to be filed after September 1, 2023.
The clean energy action plan must:
Identify and be informed by the utility's 10-year cost-effective conservation potential assessment as determined under RCW 19.285.040, if applicable;
Establish a resource adequacy requirement;
Identify the potential cost-effective demand response and load management programs that may be acquired;
Identify renewable resources, nonemitting electric generation, and distributed energy resources that may be acquired and evaluate how each identified resource may be expected to contribute to meeting the utility's resource adequacy requirement;
Identify any need to develop new, or expand or upgrade existing, bulk transmission and distribution facilities and document existing and planned efforts by the utility to make more effective use of existing transmission capacity and secure additional transmission capacity consistent with the requirements of subsection (1)(f) of this section; and
Identify the nature and possible extent to which the utility may need to rely on alternative compliance options under RCW 19.405.040(1)(b), if appropriate.
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An electric or large combination utility shall consider the social cost of greenhouse gas emissions, as determined by the commission for investor-owned utilities pursuant to RCW 80.28.405 and the department for consumer-owned utilities, when developing integrated resource plans and clean energy action plans. An electric utility must incorporate the social cost of greenhouse gas emissions as a cost adder when:
Evaluating and selecting conservation policies, programs, and targets;
Developing integrated resource plans and clean energy action plans; and
Evaluating and selecting intermediate term and long-term resource options.
For the purposes of this subsection (3): (i) Gas consisting largely of methane and other hydrocarbons derived from the decomposition of organic material in landfills, wastewater treatment facilities, and anaerobic digesters must be considered a nonemitting resource; and (ii) qualified biomass energy must be considered a nonemitting resource.
To facilitate broad, equitable, and efficient implementation of chapter 288, Laws of 2019, a consumer-owned energy utility may enter into an agreement with a joint operating agency organized under chapter 43.52 RCW or other nonprofit organization to develop and implement a joint clean energy action plan in collaboration with other utilities.
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:
Estimates loads for the next five and 10 years;
Enumerates the resources that will be maintained and/or acquired to serve those loads;
Explains why the resources in (b) of this subsection were chosen and, if the resources chosen are not: (i) Renewable resources; (ii) methods, commercially available technologies, or facilities for integrating renewable resources, including addressing any overgeneration event; or (iii) conservation and efficiency resources, why such a decision was made;
By December 31, 2020, and in every resource plan thereafter, identifies how the utility plans over a 10-year period to implement RCW 19.405.040 and 19.405.050; and
Accounts for:
Modeled load forecast scenarios that consider the anticipated levels of zero emissions vehicle use in a utility's service area, including anticipated levels of zero emissions vehicle use in the utility's service area provided in RCW 47.01.520, if feasible;
Analysis, research, findings, recommendations, actions, and any other relevant information found in the electrification of transportation plans submitted under RCW 35.92.450, 54.16.430, and 80.28.365; and
Assumed use case forecasts and the associated energy impacts. Electric utilities may, but are not required to, use the forecasts generated by the mapping and forecasting tool created in RCW 47.01.520. This subsection (5)(e)(iii) applies only to plans due to be filed after September 1, 2023.
Assessments for demand-side resources included in an integrated resource plan may include combined heat and power systems as one of the measures in a conservation supply curve. The value of recoverable waste heat resulting from combined heat and power must be reflected in analyses of cost-effectiveness under this subsection.
An electric utility that is required to develop a resource plan under this section must complete its initial plan by September 1, 2008.
Plans developed under this section must be updated on a regular basis, on intervals approved by the commission or the department, or at a minimum on intervals of two years.
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Plans shall not be a basis to bring legal action against electric utilities. However, nothing in this subsection (9)(a) may be construed as limiting the commission or any party from bringing any action pursuant to Title 80 RCW, this chapter, or chapter 19.405 RCW against any large combination utility related to an integrated system plan submitted pursuant to RCW 80.86.020.
The commission may approve, reject, or approve with conditions, any integrated system plans submitted by a large combination utility as defined in RCW 80.86.010.
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To maximize transparency, the commission, for investor-owned utilities, or the governing body, for consumer-owned utilities, may require an electric utility to make the utility's data input files available in a native format. 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.
Nothing in this subsection limits the protection of records containing commercial information under RCW 80.04.095.
The commission may require a large combination utility as defined in RCW 80.86.010 to incorporate the requirements of this section into an integrated system plan established under RCW 80.86.020.
Beginning January 1, 2022, every general rate case filing of a gas or electrical company must include a proposal for a multiyear rate plan as provided in this chapter. The commission may, by order after an adjudicative proceeding as provided by chapter 34.05 RCW, approve, approve with conditions, or reject, a multiyear rate plan proposal made by a gas or electrical company or an alternative proposal made by one or more parties, or any combination thereof. The commission's consideration of a proposal for a multiyear rate plan is subject to the same standards applicable to other rate filings made under this title, including the public interest and fair, just, reasonable, and sufficient rates. In determining the public interest, the commission may consider such factors including, but not limited to, environmental health and greenhouse gas emissions reductions, health and safety concerns, economic development, and equity, to the extent such factors affect the rates, services, and practices of a gas or electrical company regulated by the commission.
The commission may approve, disapprove, or approve with modifications any proposal to recover from ratepayers up to five percent of the total revenue requirement approved by the commission for each year of a multiyear rate plan for tariffs that reduce the energy burden of low-income residential customers including, but not limited to: (a) Bill assistance programs; or (b) one or more special rates. For any multiyear rate plan approved under this section resulting in a rate increase, the commission must approve an increase in the amount of low-income bill assistance to take effect in each year of the rate plan where there is a rate increase. At a minimum, the amount of such low-income assistance increase must be equal to double the percentage increase, if any, in the residential base rates approved for each year of the rate plan. The commission may approve a larger increase to low-income bill assistance based on an appropriate record.
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If it approves a multiyear rate plan, the commission shall separately approve rates for each of the initial rate year, the second rate year and, if applicable, the third rate year, and the fourth rate year.
The commission shall ascertain and determine the fair value for rate-making purposes of the property of any gas or electrical company that is or will be used and useful under RCW 80.04.250 for service in this state by or during each rate year of the multiyear rate plan. For the initial rate year, the commission shall, at a minimum, ascertain and determine the fair value for rate-making purposes of the property of any gas or electrical company that is used and useful for service in this state as of the rate effective date. The commission may order refunds to customers if property expected to be used and useful by the rate effective date when the commission approves a multiyear rate plan is in fact not used and useful by such a date.
The commission shall ascertain and determine the revenues and operating expenses for rate-making purposes of any gas or electrical company for each rate year of the multiyear rate plan.
In ascertaining and determining the fair value of property of a gas or electrical company pursuant to (b) of this subsection and projecting the revenues and operating expenses of a gas or electrical company pursuant to (c) of this subsection, the commission may use any standard, formula, method, or theory of valuation reasonably calculated to arrive at fair, just, reasonable, and sufficient rates.
If the commission approves a multiyear rate plan with a duration of three or four years, then the electrical company must update its power costs as of the rate effective date of the third rate year. The proceeding to update the electrical company's power costs is subject to the same standards that apply to other rate filings made under this title.
Subject to subsection (5) of this section, the commission may by order establish terms, conditions, and procedures for a multiyear rate plan and ensure that rates remain fair, just, reasonable, and sufficient during the course of the plan.
Notwithstanding subsection (4) of this section, a gas or electrical company is bound by the terms of the multiyear rate plan approved by the commission for each of the initial rate year and the second rate year. A gas or electrical company may file a new multiyear rate plan in accordance with this section for the third rate year and fourth rate year, if any, of a multiyear rate plan.
If the annual commission basis report for a gas or electrical company demonstrates that the reported rate of return on rate base of the company for the 12-month period ending as of the end of the period for which the annual commission basis report is filed is more than .5 percent higher than the rate of return authorized by the commission in the multiyear rate plan for such a company, the company shall defer all revenues that are in excess of .5 percent higher than the rate of return authorized by the commission for refunds to customers or another determination by the commission in a subsequent adjudicative proceeding. If a multistate electrical company with fewer than 250,000 customers in Washington files a multiyear rate plan that provides for no increases in base rates in consecutive years beyond the initial rate year, the commission shall waive the requirements of this subsection provided that such a waiver results in just and reasonable rates.
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The commission must, in approving a multiyear rate plan, determine a set of performance measures that will be used to assess a gas or electrical company operating under a multiyear rate plan. These performance measures may be based on proposals made by the gas or electrical company in its initial application, by any other party to the proceeding in its response to the company's filing, or in the testimony and evidence admitted in the proceeding.
In developing performance measures, incentives, and penalty mechanisms, the commission may consider factors including, but not limited to, lowest reasonable cost planning, affordability, increases in energy burden, cost of service, customer satisfaction and engagement, service reliability, clean energy or renewable procurement, conservation acquisition, demand side management expansion, rate stability, timely execution of competitive procurement practices, attainment of state energy and emissions reduction policies, rapid integration of renewable energy resources, and fair compensation of utility employees.
The commission must develop performance measures for grid updates, including advanced conductor reconductoring.
The commission must incentivize reconductoring for electrical companies by developing an incentive based on the advanced conductor reconductoring performance measure.
Nothing in this section precludes any gas or electrical company from making filings required or permitted by the commission.
The commission shall align, to the extent practical, the timing of approval of a multiyear rate plan of an electrical company submitted pursuant to this section with the clean energy implementation plan of the electrical company filed pursuant to RCW 19.405.060.
The provisions of this section may not be construed to limit the existing rate-making authority of the commission.
The commission may require a large combination utility as defined in RCW 80.86.010 to incorporate the requirements of this section into an integrated system plan established under RCW 80.86.020.
The commission shall not approve, or approve with conditions, a multiyear rate plan that requires or incentivizes a gas company or large combination utility to terminate natural gas service to customers.
The commission shall not approve, or approve with conditions, a multiyear rate plan that authorizes a gas company or large combination utility to require a customer to involuntarily switch fuel use either by restricting access to natural gas service or by implementing planning requirements that would make access to natural gas service cost-prohibitive.
The following utility-related actions are categorically exempt from compliance with this chapter:
Upgrading or rebuilding an existing transmission line by reconductoring the line with advanced conductors within existing rights-of-way;
Widening existing rights-of-way to meet electrical standards if the widening remains within previously disturbed or developed lands and only extends into an area beyond such rights-of-way as needed to comply with applicable electrical standards.
This act may be known and cited as the Washington incentives for reconductoring in existing developed transmission corridors act.