H. B. 3060
(By Mr. Speaker, Mr. Kiss (By Request)
[Introduced March 29, 2001; referred to the
Committee on Political Subdivisions then the Judiciary.]
A BILL to amend article two, chapter twenty-four of the code of
West Virginia, one thousand nine hundred thirty-one, as
amended, by adding thereto a new section, designated section
nineteen, relating to authorizing counties and municipalities
to form aggregations to negotiate procurement of energy.
Be it enacted by the Legislature of West Virginia:
That article two, chapter twenty-four of the code of West
Virginia, one thousand nine hundred thirty-one, as amended, be
amended by adding thereto a new section, designated section
nineteen, to read as follows:
ARTICLE 2. POWERS AND DUTIES OF PUBLIC SERVICE COMMISSION.
§24-2-19. Counties and municipalities may form aggregations to
negotiate procurement of energy.
A county or municipality, with the approval of its governing
body, may form an aggregation of its residential and commercial constituents for the purpose of achieving bargaining power for the
procurement of any deregulated form of energy, such as electric
generation and natural gas.
Within sixty days of the approval of an ordinance by the
governing body of a county or municipality to aggregate all of its
residents and commercial constituents, all residences and
commercial establishments must receive from the aggregate
management established by the county or municipality, a notice of
their inclusion into the aggregation. The notice shall include the
rules of the aggregation and a form to enable any resident or
business to exercise the option to withdraw from the aggregation by
submitting the form identifying the current supplier of any other
West Virginia approved energy supplier from which they wish to
procure energy. If submitted within thirty days after the issue of
the rules and forms by the aggregation, there may be no charge from
making the change. If submitted after thirty days, the rules of
the public service commission for changing suppliers apply.
A county or municipality that forms an aggregation may merge
their aggregation with any other county or municipality aggregation
in order to obtain maximum purchasing power.
A county or municipal aggregation may not actually procure the
energy for resale to the resident or business, unless approval is
obtained from the public service commission in accordance with
rules applicable to other entities requesting that authority. The contract for the sale of energy negotiated by the aggregating is
between the West Virginia approved seller and the individual
resident or business. The aggregation may collect a fee from the
seller for the purpose of administrating the program.
A county or municipality aggregation may establish the
necessary management and administration programs and employ the
necessary personnel to manage the aggregation.
NOTE: The purpose of this bill is to
authorize counties and
municipalities to form aggregations to negotiate procurement of
energy. This procedure is also known
as "community choice" in
energy deregulation.
This section is new; therefore, strike-throughs and
underscoring have been omitted.
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