§ 66-1868 — Rural infrastructure development; rural infrastructure surcharge tariff; filing in additional filings; agreement; contents; gas supply cost adjustment tariff; collection; refund; billing

(1) Prior to
undertaking rural infrastructure development pursuant to sections 66-2101
to 66-2107 , a jurisdictional utility shall file a rural infrastructure surcharge
tariff with the commission consistent with the agreement negotiated pursuant
to subsection (2) of this section. The filing may be a joint filing with other
jurisdictional utilities and may affect more than one electing city. With
the rural infrastructure surcharge tariff, the jurisdictional utility shall
file:
(a) A map of
the unserved or underserved area it proposes to serve;
(b) A description
of the project;
(c) Information regarding support of the project from individuals,
businesses, or government entities;
(d) An executed agreement with the electing
city or cities; and
(e) The factors the jurisdictional utility has considered pursuant
to section 66-2105 .
(2) An agreement submitted pursuant to subdivision (1)(d) of this
section may include, but shall not be limited to, terms and conditions that
address the following:
(a) Inclusion of representatives of the following possible parties:
The electing city or cities; the jurisdictional utility; an interstate natural
gas pipeline company; current and prospective customers; and any other interested
parties;
(b) Impact on other cities, jurisdictional utilities, interstate
natural gas pipeline companies, and current and prospective customers;
(c) The possibility
of a joint filing with other jurisdictional utilities and agreements with
other electing cities;
(d) The factors set forth in section 66-2105 ;
(e) The capacity
of the project;
(f) The potential to enhance demand for natural gas capacity created
by the project;
(g) Ownership of the project or parts of the project;
(h) Participation
by the electing city or cities and other parties to determine the customer
or customers which will receive the additional natural gas capacity created
by the project;
(i) Any matters involving rights-of-way and easements and fees,
taxes, and surcharges related thereto;
(j) The payment of costs of the rural infrastructure
development, including, but not limited to: (i) Proposed rate increases for
customers of the electing city or cities and within a city's extraterritorial
zoning jurisdiction, including direct customers and residential or commercial
customers; (ii) any city funds, including funds from the Local Option Municipal
Economic Development Act, which may be used to pay for consultants, issue
bonds, lower proposed rate increases, or otherwise finance the rural infrastructure
development project; and (iii) contributions from direct customers or other
sources, including, but not limited to, state or federal grants or loans;
and
(k) Reimbursement of costs to the electing city or cities or ratepayers
of the electing city or cities, including ratepayers in a city's extraterritorial
zoning jurisdiction.
(3) A jurisdictional utility may file a gas supply cost adjustment
tariff with the commission, consistent with the agreement negotiated pursuant
to subsection (2) of this section, that adjusts the jurisdictional utility's
residential or commercial customer rates to provide for the recovery of, but
not limited to, costs related to ongoing gas supply, transmission, pipeline
capacity, storage, financial instruments, or interstate pipeline charges or
other related costs for rural infrastructure development.
(4) A rural
infrastructure surcharge tariff or gas supply cost adjustment tariff shall
become effective immediately upon filing with the commission of all items
required under this section.
(5) Any rural infrastructure surcharge tariff
or gas supply cost adjustment tariff, and any future changes thereto, applied
to high-volume customers obtaining direct service and to general system residential
or commercial customers subject to jurisdiction of the commission shall be
calculated and implemented in a manner proposed by the jurisdictional utility
consistent with the agreement negotiated pursuant to subsection (2) of this
section.
(6) The rural infrastructure surcharge tariff or gas supply cost
adjustment tariff, and any future changes thereto, shall first be applied
to customers receiving direct service from the rural infrastructure development.
If such resulting rates are uneconomic or commercially unreasonable to those
customers, the jurisdictional utility shall recover the costs above the rates
determined by the jurisdictional utility to be economical or commercially
reasonable from general system residential or commercial customers in the
electing city in a manner proposed by the jurisdictional utility consistent
with the agreement negotiated pursuant to subsection (2) of this section.
(7) A jurisdictional
utility may collect a rural infrastructure surcharge or gas supply cost adjustment
until costs are fully recovered even if the jurisdictional utility has not
filed for or is the subject of a new general rate proceeding within that period
of time.
(8) No more than once annually, the commission may initiate a proceeding
and conduct a public hearing to determine whether the rural infrastructure
surcharge of a jurisdictional utility reflects the actual costs of the rural
infrastructure development and to reconcile any amounts collected from ratepayers with actual costs incurred by the jurisdictional utility. The commission
shall make a decision as to whether the rural infrastructure surcharge reflects
actual costs within ninety days after initiating the proceeding. The rural
infrastructure surcharge shall be presumed to reflect the actual costs of
the rural infrastructure development, unless the contrary is shown.
(9) Any refund,
including interest thereon, shall be made to presently served ratepayers in
the electing city by an appropriate adjustment shown as a credit on subsequent
bills during a period selected by the jurisdictional utility, not to exceed
twelve months, or by a cash refund at the option of the jurisdictional utility.
The jurisdictional utility shall not be required to provide such refunds to
ratepayers served at competitively set or negotiated rates or under alternative
rate mechanisms when the ratepayer is paying less than the full rate determined
pursuant to the gas supply cost adjustment rate schedule or under a customer
choice or unbundling program.
(10) A jurisdictional utility is not required
to proceed with rural infrastructure development in an unserved or underserved
area unless required to do so under an agreement with an electing city or
cities.
(11) A jurisdictional utility utilizing a rural infrastructure surcharge
shall separately identify the surcharge on each customer's bill using language
sufficiently clear to identify the purpose of the surcharge.
(12) For purposes
of this section:
(a)
City means a city of the first or second class or village;
(b) Electing
city means a city that has elected through its governing body to benefit from
additional natural gas supply made possible by a rural infrastructure development
and has executed an agreement with the jurisdictional utility serving the
city and the city's extraterritorial zoning jurisdiction to provide the additional
natural gas supply in accordance with terms and conditions mutually acceptable
to the city and jurisdictional utility consistent with the agreement negotiated
pursuant to subsection (2) of this section;
(c) Rural infrastructure development means
planning, financing, development, acquisition, construction, owning, operating,
and maintaining a natural gas pipeline facility or entering into agreements
with an interstate pipeline for existing, new, or expanded capacity on the
interstate pipeline's system for the transportation of natural gas necessary
to supply unserved or underserved areas; and
(d) Rural infrastructure
surcharge means a surcharge through which a jurisdictional utility may recover
costs for rural infrastructure development.

Legislative History

Source: Laws 2012, LB1115, § 10. Cross References: Local Option Municipal Economic Development Act, see section 18-2701.