S T A T E   O F   N E W   Y O R K
 ________________________________________________________________________
 
                                   7802
 
                             I N  S E N A T E
 
                             January 11, 2022
                                ___________
 
 Introduced  by  Sen.  COMRIE -- read twice and ordered printed, and when
   printed to be committed to the Committee on Rules
 
 AN ACT to amend the public service law, in relation to  storm  hardening
   and system resiliency plans
 
   THE  PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK, REPRESENTED IN SENATE AND ASSEM-
 BLY, DO ENACT AS FOLLOWS:

   Section 1. Subdivision 29 of section 66 of the public service law,  as
 added  by  section 2 of part A of a chapter of the laws of 2021 amending
 the public service law relating to storm hardening and system resiliency
 plans, as proposed in legislative bills numbers S. 4824-A and A. 3360-A,
 is amended to read as follows:
   29. (a) Each electric corporation subject to section twenty-five-a  of
 this  chapter  shall  prepare  and submit a climate change vulnerability
 study to the commission within eighteen months of the effective date  of
 this  act.  The  commission shall provide such study to the governor and
 the legislature. The climate change vulnerability study  shall  evaluate
 the  electric  corporation's  infrastructure, design specifications, and
 procedures to  better  understand  the  corporation's  vulnerability  to
 climate-driven  risks, and shall include, but not be limited to, adapta-
 tion measures to  address  vulnerabilities  and  any  other  information
 deemed necessary by the commission.
   (b) Within sixty days from submission of a climate change vulnerabili-
 ty study to the commission, each electric corporation subject to section
 twenty-five-a  of  this  chapter  shall[,  pursuant to regulation by the
 commission,] submit a climate resilience  plan  to  the  commission  for
 review  and approval.   Each plan shall: (i) propose storm hardening and
 resiliency measures for the next ten years and twenty years,  and  shall
 explain  the  systematic approach the corporation will follow to achieve
 the objectives of mitigating the impacts of climate  change  to  utility
 infrastructure,  reducing  restoration costs and outage times associated
 with extreme weather events, and enhancing reliability, as well as  such
 other  additional  objectives the commission may require consistent with
 ensuring increased resiliency  of  utility  infrastructure  and  overall
 reliability  during  extreme  weather events; (ii) detail how the corpo-
 
  EXPLANATION--Matter in ITALICS (underscored) is new; matter in brackets
                       [ ] is old law to be omitted.
              

                                                            LBD08931-12-2
 S. 7802                             2
 
 ration will incorporate climate change into its planning, design,  oper-
 ations,  and  emergency  response; (iii) incorporate climate change into
 existing processes and practices, manage climate change risks and  build
 resilience;  [and]  (iv)  propose  adjustments, as necessary, to how the
 corporation plans and designs infrastructure for the increasing  impacts
 from  climate  change; AND (V) ADDRESS EACH OF THE ELEMENTS SPECIFIED IN
 PARAGRAPH (D) OF THIS SUBDIVISION AND ANY ADDITIONAL ELEMENTS  SPECIFIED
 BY THE COMMISSION. The commission shall adopt rules to specify any addi-
 tional  elements  that  must  be  included in a corporation's filing for
 review of climate resilience plans.
   (c) Each subject electric corporation  shall  contemporaneously  serve
 the climate resilience plan on the parties from its last rate case filed
 pursuant to subdivision twelve of this section.
   (d)  In  its  review of each climate resilience plan filed pursuant to
 this subdivision, WHICH SHALL BE  SEPARATE  FROM  A  CORPORATION'S  RATE
 PROCEEDING, the commission shall, at minimum, consider:
   (i)  the  extent to which the plan is expected to mitigate the impacts
 of climate change, reduce restoration costs and outage times  associated
 with  extreme weather events, and enhance reliability, including whether
 the plan examines areas of lower reliability performance;
   (ii) the extent to which storm  protection  and  hardening  of  trans-
 mission  and  distribution  infrastructure  is  feasible, reasonable, or
 practical in certain  areas  of  the  corporation's  service  territory,
 including,  but  not  limited  to, coastal areas, flood zones, and rural
 areas;
   (iii) the estimated costs and benefits  to  the  corporation  and  its
 customers  of  making  the  improvements proposed in the plan, including
 considerations of equity in  the  plan  as  applied  across  the  entire
 service territory, with particular attention paid to the costs and bene-
 fits in undergrounding transmission and distribution lines;
   (iv)  [the  timeline]  A SCHEDULE for [implementation of] IMPLEMENTING
 EACH OF THE STORM HARDENING AND  RESILIENCY  MEASURES  INCLUDED  IN  the
 plan;
   (v)  whether the plan includes major performance benchmarks that meas-
 ure the effectiveness of the implementation of the plan;
   (vi) the estimated annual rate impact resulting from implementation of
 the plan during the first five years addressed in the plan;
   (vii) the extent to which the plan considers a multi-pronged  strategy
 appropriately  tailored  to  addressing  the  impacts of climate change,
 reducing restoration costs and outage times and enhancing infrastructure
 reliability, including,  but  not  limited  to,  vegetation  management,
 improvements  to system management practices, undergrounding of distrib-
 ution and transmission lines, replacement of obsolete cables, wires  and
 poles,  automation and circuit reconfiguration, investing in infrastruc-
 ture that supports the development of technologies  that  would  improve
 response  to  extreme  weather  events and reduce restoration costs, and
 system  resiliency  through  the  deployment   of   distributed   energy
 resources, and fortifying critical facilities;
   (viii) the extent to which the plan identifies opportunities for coor-
 dination  with municipalities, customer advocate groups, the independent
 system operator, the energy  research  and  development  authority,  and
 other utility or telecommunication service providers; and,
   (ix)  the  recommendations from the utility climate resilience working
 group established pursuant to paragraph (h) of this subdivision.
   (e) No later than eleven months after a corporation  files  a  climate
 resilience  plan  that  contains  all  of  the elements required by this
 S. 7802                             3
 
 subdivision, and after a public hearing on the plan, which shall include
 a public forum at a physical location, attended by commission members or
 their designees to take in written or oral comment, the commission shall
 determine  whether it is in the public interest to approve or modify the
 plan.
   (f) At least every  five  years  after  approval  of  a  corporation's
 climate resilience plan, [the] OR MORE FREQUENTLY UPON A SCHEDULE DETER-
 MINED  TO  BE APPROPRIATE BY THE COMMISSION, EACH corporation must file,
 for commission review, an updated plan that addresses each element spec-
 ified [by commission regulation] IN PARAGRAPH (B) OF  THIS  SUBDIVISION.
 The commission shall approve, modify, or deny each updated plan pursuant
 to the criteria used to review the initial plan.
   (g)  [Each  corporation  shall  make  an  annual filing to recover the
 corporation's climate resilience plan costs through  a  charge  separate
 and  apart from its base rates, to be referred to as the climate resili-
 ence plan cost recovery clause. If the commission determines  that  such
 costs are just and reasonable, in the public interest, and were prudent-
 ly  incurred, those costs will not be subject to disallowance or further
 reasonableness or prudence review except for fraud, perjury,  or  inten-
 tional  withholding  of  key  information  by the corporation, or if the
 commission finds that the corporation has  imprudently  implemented  the
 plan.  The  annual  climate  resilience plan costs may not include costs
 recovered through the corporation's base rates and must be allocated  to
 customer  classes  pursuant to the rate design most recently approved by
 the commission.  If a capital expenditure is recoverable  as  a  climate
 resilience  plan  cost,  the corporation may recover the annual depreci-
 ation on the cost, calculated  at  the  corporation's  current  approved
 depreciation  rates,  and  a  return on the undepreciated balance of the
 costs calculated at the corporation's weighted average cost  of  capital
 using the last approved return on equity] THE COMMISSION SHALL AUTHORIZE
 EACH  ELECTRIC  CORPORATION  TO  FULLY  RECOVER  IN  THE CONTEXT OF RATE
 PROCEEDINGS THE COSTS ASSOCIATED WITH  EACH  PROJECT  INCLUDED  IN  SUCH
 CORPORATION'S  CLIMATE  RESILIENCE  PLAN THAT IS APPROVED OR MODIFIED BY
 THE COMMISSION, SO LONG AS SUCH  COSTS  WERE  PRUDENTLY  INCURRED.  EACH
 CORPORATION MAY BEGIN IMPLEMENTATION OF THE CLIMATE AND RESILIENCE MEAS-
 URES IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE SCHEDULE SPECIFIED IN ITS CLIMATE RESILIENCE
 PLAN ONCE SUCH PLAN IS APPROVED OR MODIFIED BY THE COMMISSION. FOR CAPI-
 TAL  PROJECTS  THAT  ARE  PLACED INTO SERVICE AND ADDITIONAL UNRECOVERED
 EXPENSES INCURRED PRIOR TO THE BASE RATES BEING RESET IN THE FIRST  RATE
 PROCEEDING  COMMENCED BY SUCH CORPORATION SUBSEQUENT TO THE COMMISSION'S
 APPROVAL OR MODIFICATION OF THE CLIMATE  RESILIENCE  PLAN,  THE  COMPANY
 SHALL  RECOVER  SUCH  COSTS THROUGH A "CLIMATE RESILIENCY COST RECOVERY"
 SURCHARGE. THE COSTS TO BE RECOVERED THROUGH SUCH A SURCHARGE  SHALL  BE
 DETAILED  IN  A  FILING  TO  THE  COMMISSION, AND EACH CORPORATION SHALL
 PROPOSE A METHOD OF ALLOCATING COSTS TO CUSTOMER CLASSES IN SAID FILING.
 SUCH COSTS FOR CAPITAL PROJECTS IN SERVICE MAY INCLUDE AN ANNUAL  DEPRE-
 CIATION  COST,  CALCULATED  AT  THE  CORPORATION'S APPROVED DEPRECIATION
 RATES AND A RETURN ON THE UNDEPRECIATED BALANCE OF THE PLANT IN  SERVICE
 CALCULATED  AT THE CORPORATION'S APPROVED WEIGHTED AVERAGE COST OF CAPI-
 TAL. IN ADDITION, ALL UNRECOVERED EXPENSE BALANCES, NET OF TAXES,  SHALL
 ALSO  EARN CARRYING CHARGES AT THE CORPORATION'S APPROVED WEIGHTED AVER-
 AGE COST OF CAPITAL. THE COMMISSION MAY ROLL ANY UNRECOVERED COSTS ASSO-
 CIATED WITH SUCH SURCHARGE INTO BASE RATES WHEN THE  CORPORATION'S  BASE
 RATES ARE RESET. THE COMMISSION SHALL IDENTIFY IN ANY ORDER APPROVING OR
 MODIFYING  A  CORPORATION'S RATE PLAN THE RESILIENCY AND STORM HARDENING
 COMPONENT OF THE REVENUE REQUIREMENT ON A COST AND/OR PERCENTAGE BASIS.
 S. 7802                             4
 
   (h) Each corporation shall  establish  a  utility  climate  resilience
 working  group  no  later than one year after the effective date of this
 subdivision. Such working group shall advise and make recommendations to
 the corporation and the commission on the development and implementation
 of  the corporation's climate resilience plan. The CORPORATION SHALL, IN
 CONSULTATION WITH THE DEPARTMENT, INCLUDE IN THE working group [shall be
 comprised of] representatives from [the department, and municipal repre-
 sentatives] MUNICIPALITIES, customer advocacy  groups,  and  energy  and
 environmental  advocacy  organizations.  The working group shall meet at
 least twice annually.
   (i) Each corporation shall provide to  the  county  executive  or  the
 chief  elected  official  of a county for each county within its service
 territory the most recent approved copy of the climate  resilience  plan
 required  pursuant  to this subdivision. For the purposes of an electric
 corporation operating within the city  of  New  York,  such  corporation
 shall provide the most recent approved climate resilience plan with both
 the  mayor's  office  and emergency management office of the city of New
 York.
   (j) The commission shall provide access  to  such  climate  resilience
 plans pursuant to article six of the public officers law.
   (k) Beginning December first of the year after the [first] SECOND full
 year of implementation of a climate resilience plan and [annually] BIEN-
 NIALLY  thereafter,  the  [commission]  CORPORATION shall [submit to the
 governor and the legislature] FILE WITH THE COMMISSION a report  on  the
 status  of  [each corporation's] ITS activities to comply with the plan,
 WHICH REPORT THE COMMISSION SHALL, AFTER REVIEW, SUBMIT TO THE  GOVERNOR
 AND  THE  LEGISLATURE.  The report shall include, but is not limited to,
 identification  of  all  storm  protection  and  resiliency   activities
 completed  or  planned for completion, the actual costs and rate impacts
 associated with completed activities as compared to the estimated  costs
 and  rate  impacts  for  those  activities, the estimated costs and rate
 impacts associated with  activities  planned  for  completion,  and  the
 governance,  planning,  and  operational  activities  undertaken  by the
 corporation in furtherance of the climate resilience plan.
   (l) The commission shall promulgate  any  necessary  rules  and  regu-
 lations to implement and administer the provisions of this subdivision.
   §  2.  This  act  shall  take  effect on the same date and in the same
 manner part A of as a chapter of the laws of 2021  amending  the  public
 service  law relating to storm hardening and system resiliency plans, as
 proposed in legislative bills numbers S. 4824-A  and  A.  3360-A,  takes
 effect.