Delaware Senate Bill 264 (Prior Session Legislation)

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Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Democrat 5-0)
Status: Introduced on June 19 2012 - 25% progression, died in committee
Action: 2012-06-19 - Assigned to Energy & Transit Committee in Senate
Pending: Senate Energy & Transit Committee
Text: Latest bill text (Draft #1) [HTML]

The Bill will reduce the average customer energy bill and will create local construction jobs by driving investments in energy efficiency that displace more expensive energy supply purchases. Energy efficiency investments create in-state jobs, lower energy bills for Delaware consumers and businesses, prevent dollars from being sent across borders, encourage the development of skilled energy professionals and labor force in Delaware, stimulate innovation, and cause a reinvestment of Delaware dollars in Delaware. Efficiency investments lead to substantial environmental and health benefits from reduced air pollution, make homes healthier and more comfortable, increase grid reliability, decrease vulnerability to energy price spikes, increase energy security, and boost the economy. The Bill permits electricity providers to utilize electric energy efficiency savings achieved above and beyond the existing electric energy efficiency goals (15% by 2015) toward achieving their renewable energy portfolio standard requirements. Reducing electricity consumption has the same positive attributes as renewable energy resources and through the process set forth in this Bill, will result in actual reductions in overall customer bills. Adding another option for complying with Delaware’s renewable portfolio standards gives energy utilities greater flexibility in how they meet this renewable requirement while still providing the many positive benefits to Delaware citizens as previously defined in the statute. Additionally, the increased flexibility in complying with the renewable portfolio standards could also result in a lower cost to achieve those requirements. In response to the Energy Efficiency Resource Standards (EERS) Workgroup’s report, the Bill clarifies and simplifies the EERS Act. This Bill establishes an alternative compliance pathway for affected energy providers to meet the energy efficiency goals of the EERS Act. The alternative compliance pathway enables the achievement of the targets through the identification of all cost-effective, reliable, and feasible energy efficiency and coincident peak demand reduction programs that reduce the average customer’s energy bill. The new alternative compliance pathway complements the Act’s existing efficiency goals by ensuring energy efficiency and coincident peak demand reduction investments are cost effective, reliable, feasible, and are the least expensive ways to meet the growing energy demands of the state. The Bill also eliminates the authority to impose an energy efficiency surcharge. Energy efficiency is instead treated as an energy resource and is paid for in the same manner as other supply resources, with an assurance that only programs designed to reduce the average customer’s bills will be implemented. A rigorous financial oversight structure is established to ensure that only programs that reduce customer bills are approved. The Bill would reduce energy costs while increasing reliability and energy security for the state. A final component of the Bill synchronizes the Integrated Resource Planning process for regulated utilities with the energy efficiency planning process.

An Act To Amend Title 26 Of The Delaware Code Relating To Energy Efficiency Resource Standards And Renewable Energy Portfolio Standards.

Sen. George Bunting [D]	Rep. Debra Heffernan [D]	Sen. Harris McDowell [D]	Rep. Darryl Scott [D]
Rep. D.E. Williams [D]

Date	Chamber	Action
2012-06-19		Assigned to Energy & Transit Committee in Senate

Type	Source
Summary	http://legis.delaware.gov/LIS/lis146.nsf/2bede841c6272c888025698400433a04/e5ad43443f8fac1585257a16005efd87?OpenDocument
Text	http://legis.delaware.gov/LIS/lis146.nsf/vwLegislation/SB+264/$file/legis.html?open