Section 57.35. Sales to qualifying facilities

(a) Each electric utility shall establish and maintain rates, rules and regulations within its tariff for the provisions of the following services to qualifying facilities:

(1) Supplementary power.

(2) Back-up power.

(3) Maintenance power.

(b) A utility’s rate for sales of supplementary power to qualifying facilities shall recover the same costs that the utility is permitted to recover from another utility customer of the same customer class and with the same usage characteristics.

(c) A utility’s rate for sales of back-up power to qualifying facilities may not be based upon an assumption that forced outages or other reductions in electric output by qualifying facilities on an electric utility’s system will occur simultaneously or during the system peak, or both, unless supported by factual data. The utility’s rate for back-up power shall recover energy costs incurred by the utility plus an appropriate portion of fixed costs. Fixed costs shall be prorated over the actual days in a billing period during which back-up power is consumed by the qualifying facility.

(d) A utility’s rate for sales of firm maintenance power to qualifying facilities shall include energy costs and a demand or capacity charge required to recover the appropriate transmission plant and full distribution plant costs. When the scheduled outages of a qualifying facility cannot be scheduled during other than utility peak periods, the demand or capacity charge shall be the full charge stated in the utility’s filed tariff under which the qualifying facility receives this service.

(e) When appropriate, a utility shall provide supplementary back-up and maintenance power on both a firm and interruptible basis.

The provisions of this § 57.35 adopted September 17, 1982, effective January 11, 1983, 13 Pa.B. 4237; amended December 29, 1995, effective December 30, 1995, 25 Pa.B. 6085; corrected February 9, 1996, effective December 30, 1995, 26 Pa.B. 590. Immediately preceding text appears at serial page (205824).

Notation

Notes of Decisions

Notice and Opportunity To Be Heard

It was unlawful for the Commission to effect a substantive change to a prior opinion and order by applying a 15% limitation to interruptable as well as firm back-up power provided to utility’s self-generating customers without notice to the parties and full opportunity to be heard. Scott Paper Co. v. Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission, 558 A.2d 914 (Pa. Cmwlth. 1989).