Recovery of decommissioning costs in connection with nuclear power plant sale agreement.
(a)An electric utility owning a single-unit nuclear power plant located in this State which enters into an agreement to sell the nuclear power plant and as part of such agreement agrees:
(i)to make contributions to a tax-qualified decommissioning trust or non-tax qualified decommissioning trust, or both, as defined in Section 8-508.1 for the nuclear power plant, in specified amounts or for a specified period of time, after the sale is consummated, or (ii) to purchase an insurance instrument which provides for the payment of all or a specified amount of the decommissioning costs of the nuclear power plant, shall be entitled, in the case of item (i), to maintain such decommissioning trusts for the purp
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Recovery of decommissioning costs in connection with nuclear power plant sale agreement. (a) An electric utility owning a single-unit nuclear power plant located in this State which enters into an agreement to sell the nuclear power plant and as part of such agreement agrees: (i) to make contributions to a tax-qualified decommissioning trust or non-tax qualified decommissioning trust, or both, as defined in Section 8-508.1 for the nuclear power plant, in specified amounts or for a specified period of time, after the sale is consummated, or (ii) to purchase an insurance instrument which provides for the payment of all or a specified amount of the decommissioning costs of the nuclear power plant, shall be entitled, in the case of item (i), to maintain such decommissioning trusts for the purpose of receiving such contributions after the consummation of the sale, to implement revisions to its decommissioning rate in accordance with subsection (b) of this Section, and to transfer such decommissioning trusts, or the balance in the trusts, to the buyer of the nuclear power plant in accordance with the agreement of sale, and in the case of item (ii), to implement revisions to its decommissioning rate in accordance with subsection (c) of this Section. (b) An electric utility entering into an agreement of sale described in subsection (a)(i) of this Section shall be entitled to file a petition with the Commission for entry of an order authorizing the electric utility (i) to amortize its liability for decommissioning costs pursuant to the agreement of sale over the period of time in which the electric utility is required by such agreement to make additional contributions to the tax-qualified decommissioning trust, the non-tax qualified decommissioning trust, or both, and (ii) to revise its decommissioning rate to a level that will recover, over the time period specified in the agreement of sale, an annual amount equal to the electric utility's annual contributions to the decommissioning trusts which are required by the agreement of sale multiplied by the percentage of the output of the nuclear power plant which the agreement of sale obligates the electric utility to purchase in each such year. (c) An electric utility entering into an agreement of sale described in subsection (a)(ii) shall be entitled to file a petition with the Commission for entry of an order authorizing the electric utility to revise its decommissioning rate to a level that will recover, over 5 years, the electric utility's cost of purchasing the insurance instrument multiplied by the percentage of the output of the nuclear power plant which the agreement of sale obligates the electric utility to purchase in each such year. (d) An electric utility's petition pursuant to subsection (b) or subsection (c) shall state the percentage of the output of the nuclear power plant which the agreement of sale obligates the electric utility to purchase from the new owner of the nuclear power plant in each of the years for which the electric utility is seeking to implement a revised decommissioning rate. The electric utility's petition shall also state that the electric utility agrees, as conditions of the Commission's order and the implementation of the revised decommissioning rate, (i) to file revisions, pursuant to Section 16-111(f), to its base rate tariffs applicable to retail customers subject to the electric utility's decommissioning rate reducing such tariffs, and (ii) to file revisions to its transition charge tariffs applicable to retail customers subject to the electric utility's decommissioning rate incorporating a credit into the calculation of the electric utility's transition charges in accordance with this subsection. The reduction and the credit shall be in an amount per kilowatt-hour of electricity sold or delivered to retail customers equal to (i) the electric utility's decommissioning rate authorized by the Commission's order in accordance with subsection (b)(ii) or (c), as applicable, less (ii) the product of the electric utility's decommissioning rate in effect immediately prior to the agreement of sale multiplied by the percentage of the output of the nuclear power plant which the agreement of sale obligates the electric utility to purchase from the new owner of the nuclear power plant. The Commission shall issue an order granting the petition within 30 days after the petition is filed. The Commission's order shall state the aggregate total amount which the order is authorizing the electric utility to collect through its decommissioning rate. The Commission's order shall state that the effectiveness of the revisions to the electric utility's decommissioning rate shall be conditioned on the filing by the electric utility of the revisions reducing its base rate tariffs and providing for credits to its transition charge tariffs as specified in this subsection. Upon completion of the collection of the total amount which the Commission's order authorizes the electric utility to collect through its decommissioning rate, the electric utility shall not be entitled to collect any further amounts of decommissioning costs for its nuclear power plant through a decommissioning rate. Nothing in this Section shall be construed to permit an increase in the overall tariffed rates and charges paid by the electric utility's customers. (e) In addition to the uses of the proceeds of the sale and issuance of transitional funding instruments authorized by Section 18-103(d)(1), an electric utility which has entered into an agreement to sell a nuclear power plant may use the proceeds from the sale and issuance of transitional funding instruments to make contributions, or to reimburse itself for contributions which the electric utility has made, to decommissioning trusts in accordance with the agreement of sale, in an amount not to exceed 20% of the aggregate principal amount of transitional funding instruments which the electric utility was authorized to cause to have issued pursuant to Section 18-103(d)(6), including for purposes of this calculation the amount of any transitional funding instruments which the electric utility caused to be issued prior to the date of this amendatory Act of 1999. The use of proceeds authorized by this subsection shall not be subject to Section 18-103(d)(1)(B) and shall not be considered in determining if the percentage limitations on the use of proceeds set forth in the proviso following Section 18-103(d)(1)(E) have been complied with. (f) None of the authorizations permitted by this Section may be exercised if the sale of the nuclear power plant is disapproved by the Commission.