Submission, approval, penalties for failure to file, and denial of recovery of service restoration costs for failure to implement emergency response plan.

(a)  Each electric distribution company and natural gas distribution company conducting business in the state shall, on or before May 15, 2022, and annually thereafter, submit to the division an emergency response plan for review and approval. The emergency response plan shall be designed for the reasonably prompt restoration of service in the case of an emergency event, which is an event where widespread outages have occurred in the service area of the company due to storms or other causes beyond the control of the company.

(b)  After review of an electric distribution or natural gas distribution company’s emergency response plan, the division may request that the company amend the plan. The division may open an investigation of the company’s plan. If, after hearings, the division finds a material deficiency in the plan, the division may order the company to make such modifications that it deems reasonably necessary to remedy the deficiency.

(c)  Any investor-owned electric distribution or natural gas distribution company that fails to file its emergency response plan may be fined five hundred dollars ($500) for each day during which the failure continues. Any fines levied by the division shall be returned to ratepayers through distribution rates in a manner determined by the commission.

(d)  Each investor-owned electric distribution or natural gas distribution company, when implementing an emergency response plan, shall designate an employee or employees to remain stationed at the Rhode Island emergency management agency’s emergency operations center for the duration of the emergency when the emergency operations center is activated in response to an emergency with an electric or gas service restoration component. In the event of a virtual activation of the emergency activation center, each investor-owned electric and natural gas distribution company shall designate an employee or employees to participate in the virtual activation. The employee or employees shall coordinate communications efforts with designated local and state emergency management officials, as required by this section.

(e)  Each investor-owned electric distribution or natural gas distribution company, when implementing an emergency response plan, shall designate an employee or employees to serve as community liaisons for each municipality within their service territory. An investor-owned electric distribution or natural gas distribution company shall provide each community liaison with the necessary feeder map or maps outlining municipal substations and distribution networks and up-to-date customer outage reports at the time of designation as a community liaison. An investor-owned electric distribution or natural gas distribution company shall, at a minimum, provide each community liaison with three (3) customer outage report updates for each twenty-four-hour (24) period, to the liaison’s respective city or town. The community liaison shall utilize the maps and outage reports to respond to inquiries from state and local officials and relevant regulatory agencies.

(f)  On or before October 1 of each year, every city or town shall notify each investor-owned electric distribution or natural gas distribution company and the Rhode Island emergency management agency of the name of the emergency management official or designee responsible for coordinating the emergency response during storm restoration. If a municipality does not have a designated emergency management official, the chief municipal officer shall designate one public safety official responsible for said emergency response.

(g)  Notwithstanding any existing power or authority, the division may open an investigation to review the performance of any investor-owned electric distribution or natural gas distribution company in restoring service during an emergency event. If, after evidentiary hearings or other investigatory proceedings, the division finds that, as a result of the failure of the company to follow its approved emergency response plan, the length of the outages were materially longer than they would have been but for the company’s failure, the division shall recommend that the commission enter an order denying the recovery of all, or any part of, the service restoration costs through distribution rates, commensurate with the degree and impact of the service outage.

(h)  Notwithstanding any general or special law or rule or regulation to the contrary, upon request by the commission, division and any emergency management agency each electric distribution or natural gas distribution company conducting business in the state shall provide periodic reports regarding emergency conditions and restoration performance during an emergency event consistent with orders of the commission and/or division.