CHAPTER 80
HOUSE BILL No. 2130
An Act concerning transmission of electric power; relating to
siting of certain transmission
lines; concerning recovery of certain costs of certain utilities;
amending K.S.A. 66-1,180
and repealing the existing section.
Be it enacted by the Legislature of the State of Kansas:
Section 1. K.S.A. 66-1,180 is
hereby amended to read as follows: 66-
1,180. All hearings conducted pursuant to this act shall be in
accordance
with the provisions of the Kansas administrative procedure act. All
such
hearings shall be completed within 30 days after the
commencement
thereof, unless the electric utility requests a continuance of any
such
hearing. All costs of any hearing pursuant to this act shall be
taxed against
the electric utility. The commission shall make its decision with
respect
to the necessity for and the reasonableness of the location of the
proposed
electric transmission line and, taking into
consideration the benefit to both
consumers in Kansas and consumers outside the state and economic
de-
velopment benefits in Kansas. The commission shall issue or
withhold the
permit applied for. The commission and may
condition such permit as it
the commission may deem just and reasonable and as may, in
its judg-
ment, best protect the rights of all interested parties and those
of the
general public.
New Sec. 2. (a) Any electric
utility subject to the regulation of the
state corporation commission pursuant to K.S.A. 66-101, and
amend-
ments thereto, may seek to recover costs associated with
transmission of
electric power, in a manner consistent with the determination of
trans-
mission related costs from an order of a regulatory authority
having legal
jurisdiction, through a separate transmission delivery charge
included in
customers' bills. The electric utility's initial transmission
delivery charge
resulting from this section shall be determined by the commission
from
transmission-related costs approved in the electric utility's most
recent
retail rate filing. If an electric utility elects to recover its
transmission-
related costs through a transmission delivery charge, the
commission
shall, effective the same date as the effective date of the initial
transmis-
sion delivery charge, reduce the electric utility's retail rates to
such a level
that the sum of the revenue recovered from such retail rates and
the
initial transmission delivery charge is equal to the revenue
recovered from
the retail rates in effect immediately prior to the effective date
of the
initial transmission delivery charge.
(b) All transmission-related costs
incurred by an electric utility and
resulting from an order of a regulatory authority having legal
jurisdiction
over transmission matters shall be conclusively presumed prudent
for
purposes of the transmission delivery charge and an electric
utility may
change its transmission delivery charge whenever there is a change
in
transmission-related costs resulting from such an order. An
electric utility
shall submit a report to the commission at least 30 business days
before
changing the utility's transmission delivery charge. If the
commission sub-
sequently determines that all or part of such charge did not result
from
an order described by this subsection, the commission may
require
changes in the transmission delivery charge and impose appropriate
rem-
edies. The retail rates in effect at the time an electric utility
changes its
transmission delivery charge shall not be subject to review or
change as
a result of a change in the transmission delivery charge.
Sec. 3. K.S.A. 66-1,180 is hereby repealed.
Sec. 4. This act shall take effect and be in force
from and after its
publication in the statute book.
Approved April 16, 2003.
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