The Public Utility Commission shall ensure that direct access programs offered by electric companies meet the following conditions:

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(1) The provision of direct access to some retail electricity consumers must not cause the unwarranted shifting of costs to other retail electricity consumers of the electric company. The commission may, in establishing any rates and charges under ORS § 757.600 to 757.667, consider and mitigate the rate impact on consumers from the reduction or elimination of subsidies in existing rate structures.

(2) The direct access, portfolio of rate options and cost-of-service rates may include transition charges or transition credits that reasonably balance the interests of retail electricity consumers and utility investors. The commission may determine that full or partial recovery of the costs of uneconomic utility investments, or full or partial pass-through of the benefits of economic utility investments to retail electricity consumers, is in the public interest.

(3) The commission shall allow recovery, through a transition charge, of any otherwise unrecoverable costs arising from or related to an electric company’s contractual or other legal obligations to the Bonneville Power Administration under ORS § 757.663, or arising from or related to a failure of the Bonneville Power Administration to meet its contractual or other legal obligations to the electric company, from those classes of consumers for which electric power was purchased from the Bonneville Power Administration.

(4) Notwithstanding ORS § 757.355, the commission may allow a return on the unamortized balance of an uneconomic utility investment or an economic utility investment that is included in rates. [1999 c.865 § 8]