(a)  Electricity produced by cogeneration and small power production can be of benefit to the public as part of the total energy supply of the entire electric grid of the state or consumed by a cogenerator or small power producer. Subject to compliance with applicable rules governing service, public utilities shall provide transmission or distribution service to enable a retail customer to transmit electrical power generated by the customer at one location to the customer’s facilities at another location, if the commission finds that the provision of this service, and the charges, terms, and other conditions associated with the provision of this service, are not likely to result in higher cost electric service to the utility’s general body of retail and wholesale customers or adversely affect the adequacy or reliability of electric service to all customers.

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Terms Used In Rhode Island General Laws 39-2-1.4

  • Commission: means the public utilities commission. See Rhode Island General Laws 39-1-2
  • Company: means and includes a person, firm, partnership, corporation, quasi-municipal corporation, association, joint-stock association or company, and his, her, its, or their lessees, trustees, or receivers appointed by any court. See Rhode Island General Laws 39-1-2
  • Customer: means a company taking service from an electric distribution company at a single point of delivery or meter location. See Rhode Island General Laws 39-1-2
  • Electric distribution company: means a company engaging in the distribution of electricity or owning, operating, or controlling distribution facilities and shall be a public utility pursuant to subsection (20) of this section. See Rhode Island General Laws 39-1-2
  • Public utility: means and includes every company that is an electric distribution company and every company operating or doing business in intrastate commerce and in this state as a railroad, street railway, common carrier, gas, liquefied natural gas, water, telephone, telegraph, and pipeline company, and every company owning, leasing, maintaining, managing, or controlling any plant or equipment, or any part of any plant or equipment, within this state for manufacturing, producing, transmitting, distributing, delivering, or furnishing natural or manufactured gas, directly or indirectly, to or for the public, or any cars or equipment employed on, or in connection with, any railroad or street railway for public or general use within this state, or any pipes, mains, poles, wires, conduits, fixtures, through, over, across, under, or along any public highways, parkways, or streets, public lands, waters, or parks for the transmission, transportation, or distribution of gas for sale to the public for light, heat, cooling, or power for providing audio or visual telephonic or telegraphic communication service within this state, or any pond, lake, reservoir, stream, well, or distributing plant or system employed for the distribution of water to the consuming public within this state, including the water supply board of the city of Providence; provided, that, except as provided in § 39-16-9 and in P. See Rhode Island General Laws 39-1-2

(b)  Each electric distribution company shall provide backup and supplemental service to any customer who is self-generating electricity and meets reasonable interconnection requirements designed to protect the distribution and transmission system. The commission shall ensure that backup and supplemental rates made, exacted, demanded, or collected by any public utility from a customer who is self-generating shall be just and reasonable and may not be unduly discriminatory. Any backup and supplemental rate tariffs in effect as of May 2002 may remain in effect as designed through December 31, 2004. Commencing January 1, 2005, the backup and supplemental rates shall be cost-based but may be discounted as provided for in subsection (c); provided, however, that the John O. Pastore Center power plant shall be exempt from the backup or supplemental rates.

(c)  Notwithstanding the rate design criteria set forth in subsection (b), the commission may permit or require discounted backup-distribution-service rates in order to encourage economically efficient cogeneration or small power-production projects if it finds these discounts to be in the public interest and/or contribute to system reliability procurement or least-cost procurement; provided, however, that any revenue not recovered by the electric distribution company as a result of these discounted distribution rates shall be accounted for and recovered in the rates assessed on all customers. The commission shall, in determining the public interest in distributed-generating facilities, consider reduced environmental impacts, increased energy efficiency, reduced transmission losses and congestion, effects on electric system reliability, and other factors the commission may deem relevant.

(d)  The provisions of this section shall be effective as of January 1, 2005.

History of Section.
P.L. 2002, ch. 144, § 4; P.L. 2003, ch. 376, art. 15, § 1; P.L. 2004, ch. 595, art. 35, § 1; P.L. 2006, ch. 236, § 7; P.L. 2006, ch. 237, § 7.