[§269-16.3]  Statewide rate increasesurcharge assessment on ratepayers in emergency situations.  (a)  Anyutility that sustains damage to its facilities as a result of a state-declaredemergency (including but not limited to disaster relief and civil defenseemergencies as defined in chapters 127 and 128) and incurs costs related to therestoration and repair of its facilities which, if assessed only on the utilityratepayers of the affected utility service territory, may result in a rateincrease of more than fifteen per cent for the average ratepayer in thatutility service territory, may apply to the public utilities commission inaccordance with this section to recover the costs provided herein through amonthly surcharge which shall be assessed on a statewide basis and shall bebased on the utility's net restoration and repair costs; provided that thesurcharge shall not result in an assessment of more than fifteen per cent forthe average ratepayer in each of the other utility service territories and providedfurther that the public utilities commission shall exclude ratepayers inutility service territories with rates that may be substantially higher thanother utility service territories in the State.

The public utilities commission shall have theauthority to initially set, or subsequently revise, the surcharge to reflectthe actual net restoration and repair costs incurred after deduction of amountsreceived from outside sources of recovery.  Such outside sources of recoveryshall include, but not be limited to, insurance proceeds, government grants,and shareholder contributions.

(b)  Any utility meeting the criteria set forthin subsection (a) may file an application with the public utilities commissionsetting forth its estimated restoration and repair costs as well as theestimated amount or amounts that may be received from outside sources ofrecovery.

(c)  Within ninety days after filing of theutility's application, the public utilities commission, upon notice, hearing,and a determination that the application is just, reasonable, and in the publicinterest, shall:

(1)  Decide the extent to which it is just,reasonable, and in the public interest for the damaged utility's ratepayers orshareholders, or both, to bear part or all of the repair and restoration costs;

(2)  Determine whether the estimated amount of any netrestoration and repair costs to be borne by the ratepayers of the damagedutility would result in a rate increase of more than fifteen per cent for theaverage residential ratepayer in that utility's service territory;

(3)  Issue an order allowing the affected utility oranother utility acting on behalf of the affected utility to implement a monthlysurcharge on all ratepayers statewide for the type of service rendered by theaffected utility if the public utilities commission determines pursuant toparagraph (2) that a rate increase of more than fifteen per cent wouldotherwise be assessed;

(4)  Exclude from any such order ratepayers in utilityservice territories with rates that are substantially higher than other utilityservice territories in the State; and

(5)  Periodically review the order to ensure that theamounts collected by, or on behalf of, the utility shall not exceed the amountdetermined by the public utilities commission to be the net restoration andrepair costs actually incurred.

The surcharge shall be assessed over a period to bedetermined by the public utilities commission; provided, however, that theperiod shall not exceed ten years.

(d)  Any outside sources of recovery, includingbut not limited to grants from federal or state sources, shall be used tooffset any repair and restoration costs except where the use of such funds isotherwise limited by the grantor thereof.

(e)  For the purposes of this section, the term"restoration and repair costs" means those costs necessary to restorefacilities damaged by a state-declared emergency to a functional levelsubstantially the same as that existing immediately before the emergency anddoes not include the costs of upgrades or enhancements.

(f)  Any utility authorized by the publicutilities commission to assess a surcharge pursuant to this section shall stateseparately the amount of the assessment on each affected ratepayer's monthlybill. [L 1993, c 337, §4]