STATE OF NEW YORK ________________________________________________________________________ 4861 2021-2022 Regular Sessions IN SENATE February 16, 2021 ___________ Introduced by Sen. COMRIE -- read twice and ordered printed, and when printed to be committed to the Committee on Energy and Telecommuni- cations 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: 1 Section 1. Legislative findings. 1. The Legislature hereby finds and 2 declares that, due to the rise in storm intensity, dedicated storm hard- 3 ening programs need to be developed and implemented throughout New York 4 State to reduce damage and costs from future weather events. Storm hard- 5 ening is the process of constructing new, or upgrading old, infrastruc- 6 ture to increase resiliency and overall reliability during weather 7 events. In 2018, Winter Storm Riley and Winter Storm Quinn greatly 8 impacted New York's electric distribution system with nearly 500,000 9 customers losing power. In August 2020, Tropical Storm Isaias brought 10 high winds, downed trees and widespread power outages to much of the 11 state; hundreds of thousands of customers in Long Island, New York City, 12 Westchester and Rockland counties experienced extensive power outages, 13 some lasting for more than a week. Legislative hearings following these 14 storms made it clear that enhanced storm hardening efforts are needed to 15 mitigate some of the impacts to the distribution infrastructure and 16 customers. 17 2. It is in the state's interest to strengthen electric utility 18 infrastructure to withstand extreme weather conditions by promoting the 19 hardening of electrical transmission and distribution facilities, the 20 undergrounding of certain electrical distribution lines, and enhanced 21 vegetation management, including the removal of danger trees; 22 3. Protecting and strengthening transmission and distribution elec- 23 trical utility infrastructure from extreme weather conditions can effec- EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets [] is old law to be omitted. LBD02154-03-1S. 4861 2 1 tively reduce restoration costs and outage times to customers and 2 improve overall service reliability for customers; 3 4. It is in the state's interest for each utility to mitigate restora- 4 tion costs and outage times to utility customers when developing trans- 5 mission and distribution storm protection plans; and 6 5. All customers benefit from the reduced costs of storm restoration. 7 § 2. Section 66 of the public service law is amended by adding a new 8 subdivision 29 to read as follows: 9 29. (a) Each electric corporation subject to section twenty-five-a of 10 this chapter shall, pursuant to regulation by the commission, submit a 11 storm hardening and system resiliency plan to the commission for review 12 and approval. Each plan shall propose storm hardening and resiliency 13 measures for the next ten years and shall explain the systematic 14 approach the corporation will follow to achieve the objectives of miti- 15 gating restoration costs and reducing outage times associated with 16 extreme weather events and enhancing reliability, as well as such other 17 additional objectives the commission may require consistent with ensur- 18 ing increased resiliency of utility infrastructure and overall reliabil- 19 ity during extreme weather events. The commission shall adopt rules to 20 specify the elements that must be included in a corporation's filing for 21 review of storm hardening and system resiliency plans. 22 (b) In its review of each storm hardening and system resiliency plan 23 filed pursuant to this subdivision, the commission shall, at minimum, 24 consider: 25 (i) the extent to which the plan is expected to mitigate restoration 26 costs and reduce outage times associated with extreme weather events and 27 enhance reliability, including whether the plan examines areas of lower 28 reliability performance; 29 (ii) the extent to which storm protection and hardening of trans- 30 mission and distribution infrastructure is feasible, reasonable, or 31 practical in certain areas of the corporation's service territory, 32 including, but not limited to, coastal areas, flood zones, and rural 33 areas; 34 (iii) the estimated costs and benefits to the corporation and its 35 customers of making the improvements proposed in the plan; 36 (iv) the timeline for implementation of the plan; 37 (v) whether the plan includes major performance benchmarks that meas- 38 ure the effectiveness of the implementation of the plan; 39 (vi) the estimated annual rate impact resulting from implementation of 40 the plan during the first three years addressed in the plan; and 41 (vii) the extent to which the plan considers a multi-pronged strategy 42 appropriately tailored to reducing restoration costs and outage times 43 and enhancing infrastructure reliability, including, but not limited to, 44 vegetation management, improvements to system management practices, 45 undergrounding of distribution and transmission lines, replacement of 46 obsolete cables, wires and poles, automation and circuit reconfigura- 47 tion, and fortifying critical facilities. 48 (c) No later than eleven months after a corporation files a storm 49 hardening and system resiliency plan that contains all of the elements 50 required by this subdivision and the commission, the commission shall 51 determine whether it is in the public interest to approve or modify the 52 plan. 53 (d) At least every five years after approval of a corporation's storm 54 hardening and system resiliency plan, the corporation must file for 55 commission review an updated storm hardening and system resiliency plan 56 that addresses each element specified by commission regulation. TheS. 4861 3 1 commission shall approve, modify, or deny each updated plan pursuant to 2 the criteria used to review the initial plan. 3 (e) Each corporation shall make an annual filing to recover the corpo- 4 ration's storm hardening and system resiliency plan costs through a 5 charge separate and apart from its base rates, to be referred to as the 6 storm hardening plan cost recovery clause. If the commission determines 7 that such costs are just and reasonable, and were prudently incurred, 8 those costs will not be subject to disallowance or further reasonable- 9 ness or prudence review except for fraud, perjury, or intentional with- 10 holding of key information by the corporation. The annual storm harden- 11 ing plan costs may not include costs recovered through the corporation's 12 base rates and must be allocated to customer classes pursuant to the 13 rate design most recently approved by the commission. If a capital 14 expenditure is recoverable as a storm hardening plan cost, the corpo- 15 ration may recover the annual depreciation on the cost, calculated at 16 the corporation's current approved depreciation rates, and a return on 17 the undepreciated balance of the costs calculated at the corporation's 18 weighted average cost of capital using the last approved return on equi- 19 ty. 20 (f) Each corporation shall provide to the county executive or the 21 chief elected official of a county for each county within its service 22 territory the most recent approved copy of the storm hardening and 23 system resiliency plan required pursuant to this subdivision. For the 24 purposes of an electric corporation operating within the city of New 25 York, such corporation shall provide the most recent approved storm 26 hardening and system resiliency plan with both the mayor's office and 27 emergency management office of the city of New York. 28 (g) The commission shall provide access to such storm hardening and 29 system resiliency plans pursuant to article six of the public officers 30 law. 31 (h) Beginning December first of the year after the first full year of 32 implementation of a storm hardening and system resiliency plan and annu- 33 ally thereafter, the commission shall submit to the governor and the 34 legislature a report on the status of each corporation's storm 35 protection activities. The report shall include, but is not limited to, 36 identification of all storm protection and resiliency activities 37 completed or planned for completion, the actual costs and rate impacts 38 associated with completed activities as compared to the estimated costs 39 and rate impacts for those activities, and the estimated costs and rate 40 impacts associated with activities planned for completion. 41 (i) The commission shall promulgate any necessary rules and regu- 42 lations to implement and administer the provisions of this subdivision. 43 § 3. This act shall take effect on the one hundred eightieth day after 44 it shall have become a law. Effective immediately, the promulgation of 45 any rules or regulations by the Public Service Commission necessary for 46 the implementation of this act on its effective date are authorized to 47 be made and completed on or before such effective date.