Bill S.2140 187th (2011 - 2012)

ADOPTED
Clerk #1

Online Restoration Estimates

Mr. Hedlund moves that Senate Bill 2140 be amended by striking out Section 7 in its entirety and inserting in place thereof the following new section:- 

SECTION 7. Subsection (a) of section 85B of said chapter 164, as appearing in the 2010 Official Edition, is hereby amended by striking out paragraph (2) and inserting in place thereof the following paragraph:-

(2) a communications system with customers during an emergency that includes continuous access to staff assistance and twice-daily updates, which must be available from staff assistants and displayed prominently on the home page of the utility's website, on estimated return of service; provided that such updates shall begin upon completion of a damage assessment or after the first 24 hours of a damage assessment, whichever occurs first;

ADOPTED
Further Amendment – Clerk #1.1

Utility Company Call Centers

Mr. Ross moves to amend the bill (Senate, No. 2140) by striking out section 7 and inserting in place thereof the following section:-

“SECTION 7.  Subsection (a) of section 85B of said chapter 164, as appearing in the 2010 Official Edition, is hereby amended by striking out paragraph (2) and inserting in place thereof the following paragraph:-

(2) a communications system with customers during an emergency that includes continuous access to staff assistance and twice-daily updates on estimated return of service including via telephone, a website in which the twice-daily updates shall be displayed prominently for easy public access and 1 other form of appropriate media outreach; provided that such updates shall begin upon completion of a damage assessment or after the first 24 hours of a damage assessment, whichever occurs first.”.

ADOPTED
REDRAFT Clerk #2

Power Restoration to Elderly Housing Complexes

Mr. Finegold moves to amend the bill (Senate, No. 2140) by inserting the following section:-

“SECTION 7A. Subsection (a) of section 85B of said chapter 164, as so appearing, is hereby amended by striking out paragraph (3) and inserting in place thereof the following paragraph:-

(3) contact with and procedures for prioritizing power restoration to customers who had documented their need for essential electricity for medical needs and customers who are otherwise vulnerable, including but not limited to elderly and physically challenged customers.”

ADOPTED
Redraft Clerk # 3

Planning for Restoration of Electrical Service

Mr. Donnelly moves to amend the bill (Senate, No. 2140) by inserting after section 10 the following section:-

“SECTION 10A.  Said section 85B of said chapter 164, as so appearing, is hereby further amended by adding the following subsection:-

(h) Each investor-owned electric distribution, transmission or natural gas distribution company shall file with the emergency management director of each municipality within their service territory a copy of the emergency response plan and any updates.    Failure to file the plan with each emergency management director shall result in a fine of $500.”.

Rejected
Clerk #4

Ratepayer Credit

Ms. Candaras moves to amend the proposed amendment (Senate, No. 2140), by adding the following Section:

SECTION XX. Chapter 164 of the General Laws is hereby amended by inserting after section 1K the following section:-

Section 1L:  As used in this section the following words shall, unless the context clearly requires otherwise, have the following meanings:"”

"catastrophic conditions", severe weather conditions resulting in interruption of service to ten percent or more of a utility's customers, or a state of emergency declared by local, state, or federal government officials.

"normal conditions",  conditions other than catastrophic conditions.

"same-circuit repetitive interruption",   a grouping of more than 10 customers on a circuit who experience multiple interruptions under all conditions."‚ 

"interruption", the full or partial loss of service to 1 or more customers for longer than 5 minutes."‚

"duration of the interruption", the measure of time from the time the utility was notified or otherwise became aware of the loss of service.

Notwithstanding the provisions of Section 1K of Chapter 164, the department shall promulgate regulations to establish a credit of not less than $25.00 to be awarded to each ratepayer, whereupon an investor-owned electric distribution, transmission or natural gas distribution company fails to restore service as follows:

(a) within 120 hours after an interruption due to catastrophic conditions;
(b) within 16 hours after an interruption that occurred during normal conditions; and
(c) where there are more than 7 service interruptions in a 12-month period due to same circuit repetitive interruption. 

The credit shall be credited during a single billing month within three months of the department's notification of violation or final adjudication after appeal pursuant to this section; provided, however, that companies may petition the department to distribute the credit over a period of more than a single billing month if the credit exceeds $10,000,000. The department may establish a schedule of credits dependent on the class of ratepayer, length of interruption, or frequency of interruption. The entire cost of the credit shall be assessed to the investor-owned electric distribution, transmission or natural gas distribution company that provides such service to the affected customer.  Notwithstanding any general or special law to the contrary, no investor-owned electric distribution, transmission or natural gas distribution company may seek recovery of any assessments made under this paragraph in any rate proceeding before the department of public utilities. The issuance of the credit shall be appealable to the department. The department shall review the amount of the credit on an annual basis. Such credits and assessments established by this section shall be implemented notwithstanding the maximum penalty in Section 1J of Chapter 164 of the General Laws or any other General or Special law to the contrary. 

ADOPTED
Redraft Clerk #5

Community Liaisons

Ms. Flanagan moves to amend the bill (Senate, No.2140) by striking out Section 8 and inserting in place thereof the following section:-

“SECTION 8. Subsection (a) of said section 85B of said chapter 164, as so appearing, is hereby amended by striking out paragraph (4) and inserting in place thereof the following paragraph:- (4) (i) designation of staff to communicate with local officials, relevant regulatory agencies and designated community liaisons as required by subsection (f); and (ii) designation of staff to be posted at the Massachusetts emergency management agency’s emergency operations center, as required by subsection (e);.”;

and in section 10, by striking out, in line 100,  the word “in” and inserting in place thereof the following word:-“for”.

ADOPTED
Clerk #6

Web EOC Assessment

Mr. Downing moves to amend the bill (Senate, No. 2140) by striking out section 1.

ADOPTED
Redraft Clerk #7

Customer Credits

Mr. Ross moves to amend the bill (Senate, No. 2140) by striking out, in lines 64 and 65, the words “in the month or months during which the company incurred the penalty” and inserting in place thereof the following words:- “ under regulations promulgated by the department”.

Rejected
Clerk #8

Designated Utility Crews

Mr. Ross moves to amend the bill (Senate, No. 2140) by inserting, in SECTION 10 after subsection (g) the following subsection:-
(h) Each investor-owned electric distribution, transmission or natural gas distribution company, when implementing an emergency response plan, shall designate at least one forestry crew and at least one line crew to each municipality without service. Crews shall remain stationed in each municipality until full service is restored to that municipality.

Rejected
Further Clerk #8.1

Designated Utility Crews

Mr. Keenan moves to further amend the bill by striking amendment 8 in its entirety and inserting in its place the following:-

(h) Each investor-owned electric distribution, transmission or natural gas distribution company, when implementing an emergency response plan, shall designate to each municipality without service at least one forestry crew, at least one line crew, and at least one supervisor with authority to assign and direct said crews relative to work to be performed within said municipality. Crews shall remain stationed in each municipality until full service is restored to that municipality.

ADOPTED
Redraft - Clerk #9

Municipal Information for Community Liaisons

Mr. Ross moves to amend the bill (Senate, No. 2140) in section 10, in proposed subsection (f) of section 85B of chapter 164 of the General Laws, by adding the following 3 sentences:-
“An investor-owned electric distribution, transmission 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, transmission or natural gas distribution company shall provide each community liaison with twice-daily customer outage report updates for the liaison’s respective city or town. The community liaison shall utilize the maps and outage reports to respond to inquiries from the general public, local officials and relevant regulatory agencies.”.

Redraft Clerk #10

WITHDRAWN

Rejected
Redraft Clerk #11

Emergency Generation Sources

Mr. Tarr moves to amend the bill (S. 2140) by inserting, after subsection (g) in section 10 the following new subsection:-

(h) Each electric distribution, transmission or natural gas distribution company conducting business in the commonwealth, when implementing an emergency response plan, shall supply emergency generation sources to serve any customer during an emergency event whose service has been interrupted for longer than 12 hours.

Rejected
Roll Call #149 [YEAS 7 - NAYS 29]
FURTHER Clerk #11.1

Merger Moratorium

Messrs. Knapik, Tarr, Hedlund and Ross move to further amend Clerk #11 by inserting at the end thereof the following:-

“SECTION XXX. There shall be a moratorium on the approval of any utility mergers by the department of public utilities until either three months following the passage of this act or the completion of all outstanding regulatory investigations, procedures and reviews involving storm response by the department.”

ADOPTED
Redraft Clerk #12

Relative to Adequate Staffing for Emergency Response

Mr. Tarr moves to amend the bill (Senate, No. 2140) by striking Section 7 in its entirety and inserting in place thereof the following new Section:-

“SECTION 7. Subsection (a) of section 85B of said chapter 164, as appearing in the 2010 Official Edition, is hereby amended by striking out paragraph (1) and paragraph (2) and inserting in place thereof the following paragraphs:-

(1) the identification of management staff responsible for company operations during an emergency, the number of service workers who are available to respond to an emergency within 24 hours, and the locations where said workers are employed when not responding to an emergency;

(2) a communications system with customers during an emergency that includes continuous access to staff assistance and twice-daily updates on estimated return of service; provided that such updates shall begin upon completion of a damage assessment or after the first 24 hours of a damage assessment, whichever occurs first;”

ADOPTED
REDRAFT Clerk #13

Corrective Amendment

Mr. Brewer moves to amend the bill (Senate, No. 2140) by striking Section 7 in its entirety and inserting in place thereof the following section:-

“SECTION 7. Subsection (a) of section 85B of said chapter 164, as appearing in the 2010 Official Edition, is hereby amended by striking out paragraphs (1) and (2) and inserting in place thereof the following 2 paragraphs:-

            (1) the identification of management staff responsible for company operations during an emergency, the number of service workers who are available to respond to an emergency within 24 hours, and the locations where said workers are employed when not responding to an emergency;

            (2) a communications system with customers during an emergency that includes continuous access to staff assistance and twice-daily updates on estimated return of service including via telephone, a website in which the twice-daily updates shall be displayed prominently for easy public access and 1 other form of appropriate media outreach; provided that such updates shall begin upon completion of a damage assessment or after the first 24 hours of a damage assessment, whichever occurs first;”.