2010 Pennsylvania Code
Title 66 - PUBLIC UTILITIES
Chapter 13 - Rates and Rate Making
1323 - Procedures for new electric generating capacity.

     § 1323.  Procedures for new electric generating capacity.
        (a)  Excess capacity costs.--Whenever a public utility claims
     the costs of an electric generating unit in its rates for the
     first time and the commission finds that the unit results in the
     utility having excess capacity, the commission shall disallow
     from the utility's rates, in the same proportion as found to be
     excess capacity:
            (1)  the return on specific unit or units of any excess
        generating reserve;
            (2)  the return on the average net original cost per
        megawatt of the utility's generating capacity; or
            (3)  the equity investment in the new unit.
     In addition to the disallowances set forth in this subsection,
     the commission may disallow any other costs of the unit or units
     which the commission deems appropriate. For the purposes of this
     section, a rebuttable presumption is created that a unit or
     units or portion thereof shall be determined to be excess unless
     found to be needed to meet the utility's customer demand plus a
     reasonable reserve margin in the test year or the year following
     the test year, or, if it is a base load unit, it is also found
     to produce annual economic benefits which will exceed the total
     annual cost of the plant during the test year or within a
     reasonable period following the test year.
        (b)  Units which are out of service.--Whenever an electric
     generating unit, determined by the commission to be a base load
     unit, is first claimed in the rates of a public utility and the
     unit is out of service at the time that the commission makes its
     final decision in the case in which the unit's costs are
     claimed, the commission shall make either of the following
     adjustments:
            (1)  exclude from the utility's rates all costs
        associated with the unit; or
            (2)  for a period of one year from the date of the final
        decision, require that the utility shall guarantee at least
        the level of either generation or energy savings, whichever
        produces the rate or rates most advantageous to the
        ratepayer, that the utility had estimated would be produced
        by the unit in the first year of its operation.
     An adjustment shall be made under this subsection regardless of
     whether or not the new base load unit had been in service during
     or at the end of the test year used in the proceeding.
        (c)  Other powers and duties preserved.--This section shall
     not be construed to diminish the powers and duties of the
     commission under any other provision of law to reduce rates
     because of excess capacity or any other reason, provided that,
     in determining whether a base load unit, which was in commercial
     operation for at least one year prior to the effective date of
     this section, results in a public utility having excess
     capacity, cogeneration, for which an agreement has been entered
     into by the public utility within three years after the in-
     service date of the base load unit, shall not be considered by
     the commission in determining the reserve margins or economic
     benefits resulting from the base load unit for the first five
     years after the date of the cogeneration agreement.
        (d)  Record evidence.--Any adjustments to rates made under
     this section shall be made on the basis of specific findings
     upon evidence of record, which findings shall be set forth
     explicitly, together with their underlying rationale, in the
     final order of the commission.
     (July 10, 1986, P.L.1238, No.114, eff. imd.)

        1986 Amendment.  Act 114 added section 1323 and provided in
     section 19 that section 1323 shall be applicable to all cases
     pending before the commission.