2005 Rhode Island Code - § 39-1-46 — Application and proceedings relating to securitization order.

    (a) An electric distribution company seeking a securitization order shall file an application with the commission. The contents of the application shall include:

   (1) A financing plan, including a description and the principal terms and conditions of the transactions contemplated;

   (2) A statement and appropriate schedules defining the portion of the qualified transition expenditures that will be financed;

   (3) An analysis showing the savings to the electric distribution company's customers that are expected, on average, to be realized through the financing plan;

   (4) A statement and appropriate schedules setting forth the specific qualified transition charges that will be charged in rates, on average, to the electric distribution company's customers in lieu of the applicable portion of the original transition charges authorized by § 39-1-27.4;

   (5) A proposed adjustment procedure, as described in subparagraph (h) below; and

   (6) A statement regarding the use or uses of the proceeds of the transition bonds, and a description of how the intangible transition charges are to be billed, collected, held, accounted for, and paid over to a financing party in respect of the financing.

   (b) The commission shall review the application to determine whether the application meets the following criteria: (i) the transaction(s) contemplated in the application, including without limitation issuance of transition bonds, are reasonably certain to result, on average, in quantifiable savings in the transition charges authorized by § 39-1-27.4 and paid to the electric distribution company by its retail distribution customers, (ii) the terms of the financing plan are commercially reasonable, (iii) all of the savings to be achieved by the financing plan, net of costs, will be credited to the customer of the electric distribution company through the intangible transition charges, and (iv) the procedures and terms proposed in the application are consistent with the terms and intent of this chapter.

   (c) The commission will take action to approve or disapprove the application within not more than one hundred and twenty (120) days after such application is filed by the electric distribution company.

   (d) If the commission finds that the application meets the criteria specified in subparagraph (b) above, the commission shall issue a securitization order approving the terms of the application, consistent with the provisions of this chapter. If, however, the commission finds that the application does not meet such criteria, the commission shall issue a written order denying the application and specifying with reasonable particularity the reasons why the application does not meet the criteria.

   (e) After the agreements that will be used to implement the financing plan have been completed and executed, but before they become effective, the electric distribution company applicant shall make a compliance filing with the commission containing the final executed agreements. If requested by the applicant electric distribution company, the commission shall issue a written compliance order within thirty (30) days after receiving the compliance filing confirming whether the final agreements are materially consistent with the original application that was approved by the commission in the securitization order.

   (f) In the event that the applicant electric distribution company submits a financing plan that contemplates transition bond financings occurring in stages, the commission shall determine whether the application meets the criteria specified in paragraph (b) above and, if it so finds, shall make such determination in the securitization order in connection with such financing plan as provided above. The commission shall not, thereafter, in connection with any supplementary compliance filings that may be contemplated in the application to carry out the stages of financing, condition the approval of such compliance filings on the commission renewing any of its findings that were made in the securitization order approving the financing plan

   (g) An electric distribution company shall be permitted to designate in its application for a securitization order the portions, sub-parts, or components of qualified transition expenditures that shall be the subject of the securitization order and subsequent related financing through the issuance of transition bonds.

   (h) The application of the electric distribution company shall include a procedure through which the commission will annually review the intangible transition charges authorized therein, and within not more than thirty (30) days after each such review, adjust such charges if and to the extent necessary to ensure the timely recovery of revenues sufficient to provide for the payment for all principal, interest, premium, if any, and other charges, or, with respect to certificates of beneficial interest, participation or ownership, amounts corresponding thereto, in respect of the transition bonds proposed in the application; provided, however, that any such adjustments shall in no event require the acceleration of payments of any such charges or amounts related to the securitization order.

   (i) The application may propose the principal terms and conditions upon which the transition bonds may be refinanced, including the disposition of any savings achieved thereby and the effect of such refinancing upon the intangible transition charges from such refinancing.