Brief ⁽¹⁾

House Sub. for SB 112 would establish the Energy Policy Division in the Kansas Corporation Commission. The following provisions apply to the Division's operations.

Division Responsibilities. This Division would assume existing responsibilities already assigned to the Commission's Energy Program Section. Other responsibilities would be expanded, such as a charge to develop and periodically review and update a comprehensive state energy plan and policy recommendations regarding energy resource development initiatives and energy conservation and management. The plan and recommendations would be intended for use by the Governor, the Legislature, and the Kansas Corporation Commission.

Division Staff. The Kansas Corporation Commission must appoint a division director who would be in the unclassified service. The director may employ and supervise other staff, as needed, and would supervise the program manager for federal energy conservation programs in the state.

Energy Policy Advisory Council Responsibilities. The Energy Policy Advisory Council would be established in the Energy Policy Division to assist the Director of the Division in: (1) developing, proposing, and updating the comprehensive state energy plan and recommendations; and (2) developing, proposing, and updating guidelines pertaining to energy resources emergencies.

Energy Policy Advisory Council Members. The Council would be composed of 21 members, ten of whom would be appointed by the Governor. The Governor's appointees would include an energy economist on the faculty of a Kansas Regents' institution or Washburn University, three energy consumers, and members representing an oil producer; a natural gas producer; an investor-owned electric generator; a rural electric cooperative; a municipal utility; and an electric generator using renewable energy. The remaining members would include: the Chairperson, Vice Chairperson, and Ranking Minority Member of the House and Senate Utilities Committees who would be nonvoting members ex officio; and the Secretary of Commerce and Housing or designee; the Secretary of Administration or designee; the State Geologist or designee; the Chairperson of the Kansas Corporation Commission or designee; and the Consumer Counsel of the Citizens' Utility Ratepayer Board or designee who would be voting members ex officio. The Council would elect its own chairperson, vice chairperson, and other officers deemed necessary.

Agency Cooperation. The Kansas Geological Survey, the Kansas Department of Commerce and Housing, the Department of Administration, and other state and local government agencies must cooperate with the Director of the Energy Policy Division and the Energy Policy Advisory Council.

Rule and Regulation Authority. The Director of the Energy Policy Division would be required to adopt rules and regulations to administer the act.

Background

The introduced version of SB 112 related to increasing oversight of the Kansas Corporation Commission with respect to energy cost adjustment clauses. The Senate Committee on Utilities conducted extensive hearings on a net metering proposal contained in SB 299. The Committee subsequently excised provisions of SB 112 and replaced them with a bill related to parallel generation service requirements. (Parallel generation, like net metering, is a means of enabling utilities to purchase excess electrical power generated by a customer's renewable generator.) The Senate Committee's version of the bill would amend the law authorizing contracts for parallel generation service to require all Kansas electric utilities to provide enhanced compensation to residential and commercial customers who request this service and who own renewable generators meeting certain capacity criteria. The compensation amount could not be less than 150 percent of the utility's monthly system average cost of energy per kilowatt hour.

The House Committee on Utilities replaced the Senate's version of the bill with a slightly modified version of the House Committee of the Whole version of HB 2245 -- the House's approach to parallel generation requirements and enhanced compensation. In addition, the House Committee included a modified version of Sub. for HB 2244, as amended by the House Committee of the Whole. This bill was referred to the Senate Committee on Utilities, which took no action on it. Sub. for HB 2244 would have established a free-standing Kansas Energy Resources Coordinating Council to discharge the general responsibilities assigned in House Sub. for SB 112 to the proposed Energy Policy Division of the Kansas Corporation Commission.

The House Committee of the Whole amended House Sub. for SB 112 to delete all provisions related to parallel generation service requirements. Only those provisions related to establishment of the Energy Policy Division were retained in the House Committee of the Whole version.

1. *Supplemental notes are prepared by the Legislative Research Department and do not express legislative intent. The supplemental note and fiscal note for this bill may be accessed on the Internet at http://www.ink.org/public/legislative/fulltext.cgi