Amendment #7 to H4196

To credit residents for loss of electricity and natural gas

Mr. Winslow of Norfolk moves to amend the amendment inserting at the end thereof the following section:-

“Section XX. Chapter 164 of the General Laws is hereby amended by inserting after section 1J the following section:-

Section 1K. (a) 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 the interruption of service to 10 percent or more of a utility's customers or a state of emergency declared by local, state or federal government officials.

“Duration of the interruption”, the measure of time from the time the utility was notified or otherwise became aware of the loss of service.

“Interruption”, the full or partial loss of service to 1 or more customers for longer than 5

minutes.

“Normal conditions”, conditions other than catastrophic conditions as defined by this section.

“Same-circuit repetitive interruption”, a grouping of more than 10 customers on a circuit

who experience multiple interruptions under all conditions.

(b) Notwithstanding any general or special law, rule or regulation to the contrary, the department shall promulgate regulations to establish a credit of not less than $25 to be awarded to each ratepayer, whereupon an investor-owned electric distribution, transmission or natural gas distribution company fails to restore service as follows:

(i) within 120 hours after an interruption due to catastrophic conditions;

(ii) within 16 hours after an interruption that occurred during normal conditions; or

(iii) 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 3 months of the department’s notification of violation or final adjudication after appeal under 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 cumulative amount of the credits 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. The issuance of the credit shall be appealable to the department. The department shall review the amount of the credit on an annual basis. The credits established by this section shall be implemented notwithstanding the maximum penalty under section 1J."