An Act To Establish Minimum Service Standards for Electric Utilities
Be it enacted by the People of the State of Maine as follows:
Sec. 1. 35-A MRSA §3106 is enacted to read:
§ 3106. Utility service standards
Except as provided in subsection 3, the commission by rule shall establish service standards for transmission and distribution utilities in accordance with this section.
1. Service interruption reporting. The commission shall adopt rules that require transmission and distribution utilities to track and report service interruptions. The rules must include but are not limited to requirements for the following:
A. Record keeping regarding service interruptions affecting the distribution system of the utility; and
B. Reporting service interruption information to the commission.
2. Service standards; corrective actions. The commission shall adopt rules that set standards for transmission and distribution utilities regarding the frequency and duration of service interruptions. The rules must establish performance targets and specify guidelines for the commission to require a transmission and distribution utility to take corrective actions if performance targets are not met.
3. Exception; small utilities. Notwithstanding any other provision of this section, the commission may exempt small transmission and distribution utilities from any rule, or portion of a rule, required by this section if the commission determines that the rule would impose unreasonable requirements on the utility due to the small size of the utility. For the purposes of this subsection, "small transmission and distribution utility" means a transmission and distribution utility serving 50,000 or fewer retail customers.
Rules adopted pursuant to this section are routine technical rules as defined in Title 5, chapter 375, subchapter 2-A.
Effective 90 days following adjournment of the 129th Legislature, First Regular Session, unless otherwise indicated.