[Congressional Record Volume 161, Number 68 (Wednesday, May 6, 2015)]
[Senate]
[Pages S2691-S2692]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]

      By Mr. WYDEN:
  S. 1233. A bill to amend the Public Utility Regulatory Policies Act 
of 1978 to expand the electric rate-setting authority of States; to the 
Committee on Energy and Natural Resources.
  Mr. WYDEN. Mr. President, today I rise to introduce the PURPA PLUS 
Act.
  In my home State we have numerous emerging small renewable energy 
technologies, such as wave energy buoys, hydropower turbines in 
irrigation canals, biomass burning cogeneration facilities and rooftop 
solar installations. Like Oregon, many States have sought to advance 
such new electricity technologies by allowing utilities to pay higher 
than normal power purchase rates, called ``incentive rates'', for power 
from these desirable technologies. Incentive rates allow individuals 
and small businesses deploying these desirable technologies to recover 
the money they invest in the infrastructure, such as solar panels or 
other electricity generation equipment, over a reasonable period of 
time. The ability of States to award such incentive rates for small 
projects is currently hampered by the need to go through a case-by-case 
review process before the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, FERC.
  The PURPA PLUS Act simply provides States the legal authority to set 
incentive rates for small renewable energy projects. Currently, under 
the Public Utility Regulatory Policies Act of 1978, PURPA, the FERC 
regulates the price that utility companies pay for electricity from 
small, independent power providers. Such prices can be no higher than 
what it would normally cost a utility company either to generate or to 
buy additional power from the lowest cost provider. This structure sets 
a limit on prices that is often too low for small renewable energy 
projects to be financially viable, despite other clear benefits they 
provide, such as local job creation, lower investment in high-voltage 
transmission lines, diversity in an area's power generation portfolio, 
and the environmental benefits of green energy.
  PURPA PLUS would transfer the authority for setting power purchase 
rates for small power projects of less than 2 megawatts from FERC to 
the States on a voluntary basis. If a State chose to exercise this 
authority to promote small wind energy development, or solar, or 
cogeneration projects, it could. If a State chose not to use this 
authority, FERC would continue to regulate these projects as before. By 
capping the project size at 2 megawatts, PURPA PLUS only extends this 
new authority for small projects that are providing very small amounts 
of power to the local utility company, leaving regulation of large wind 
farms, hydropower and other large renewable energy projects unchanged.
  While I acknowledge that the power from these small projects may be 
more expensive than a large central generation station powered by coal 
or gas, I

[[Page S2692]]

believe that States, if they choose, should be able to consider the 
associated benefits of small renewable power and set higher prices, 
when the market demands such action and when the benefits outweigh the 
costs.
  I urge my colleagues to review and ultimately to support this 
legislation.
  Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the text of the bill be 
printed in the Record.
  There being no objection, the text of the bill was ordered to be 
printed in the Record, as follows:

                                S. 1233

       Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of 
     the United States of America in Congress assembled,

     SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

       This Act may be cited as the ``PURPA's Legislative Upgrade 
     to State Authority Act'' or ``PURPA PLUS Act''.

     SEC. 2. FINDINGS.

       Congress finds that--
       (1) section 210 of the Public Utility Regulatory Policies 
     Act of 1978 (16 U.S.C. 824a-3)--
       (A) established a new class of nonutility generators known 
     as ``qualifying cogeneration facilities'' and ``qualifying 
     small power production facilities''; and
       (B) encouraged the development of alternate sources of 
     energy with the requirement that utilities purchase energy 
     offered by qualifying facilities;
       (2) since the date of enactment of that section, materials 
     and designs for qualifying facility technologies have 
     advanced and placed renewable resources and cogeneration 
     facilities within the reach of more consumers, including 
     technologies such as--
       (A) solar photovoltaic panels;
       (B) small wind turbines;
       (C) storage technologies to support renewable energy;
       (D) small hydroelectric generators on existing dams, 
     diversions, and conduits;
       (E) hydrokinetic generators;
       (F) gas microturbines;
       (G) steam-cycle turbines;
       (H) Stirling engines;
       (I) fuel cells; and
       (J) biomass boilers;
       (3) States need additional regulatory flexibility and 
     authority to be able to incentivize the qualifying 
     facilities; and
       (4) the avoided cost caps on qualifying facilities should 
     be removed so that States can set the rates for qualifying 
     facilities of not more than 2 megawatts capacity.

     SEC. 3. STATE AUTHORITY TO INCENTIVIZE QUALIFYING FACILITIES.

       Section 210(b) of the Public Utility Regulatory Policies 
     Act of 1978 (16 U.S.C. 824a-3(b)) is amended in the last 
     sentence by inserting before the period at the end the 
     following: ``, except that the rule shall provide that a 
     State regulatory authority or nonregulated electric utility, 
     acting under State authority, may set rates that exceed the 
     incremental cost of alternative electric energy for purchases 
     from any qualifying cogeneration facility or qualifying small 
     power production facility of not more than 2 megawatts 
     capacity''.

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