CHAPTER 240

(HB 1017)

Public Utilities Commission authorized
to take certain actions related to federal energy acts.

         ENTITLED, An Act to  authorize the Public Utilities Commission to implement and comply with certain federal energy acts and to validate certain related commission actions.

BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF SOUTH DAKOTA:

     Section  1.  That chapter 49-34A be amended by adding thereto a NEW SECTION to read as follows:

     The commission may implement and comply with the provisions of the Public Utility Regulatory Policies Act of 1978, as amended to January 1, 2006, and the Energy Policy Act of 2005, and may promulgate rules pursuant to chapter 1-26 consistent with these acts. The commission may promulgate rules to establish the following:

             (1)    Standards requiring a public utility to offer each of its customer classes, and provide individual customers upon customer request, a time-based rate schedule under which the rate charged by the electric utility varies during different time periods and reflects the variance, if any, in the utility's costs of generating and purchasing electricity at the wholesale level;

             (2)    Standards requiring a public utility to make interconnection service available on request to any electric customer that the utility serves;

             (3)    Standards requiring a public utility to develop a plan to minimize dependence on one fuel source and to ensure that the electric energy it sells to consumers is generated using a diverse range of fuels and technologies, including renewable technologies; and

             (4)    Standards requiring a public utility to develop and implement a ten-year plan to increase the efficiency of its fossil fuel generation.

     Any order adopted by the commission prior to January 1, 2006, pursuant to these acts, is hereby validated.

     Signed February 14, 2006

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