Sec. 10p.
(1) Each electric utility operating in this state shall establish an industry worker transition program that shall, in consultation with employees or applicable collective bargaining representatives, provide skills upgrades, apprenticeship and training programs, voluntary separation packages consistent with reasonable business practices, and job banks to coordinate and assist placement of employees into comparable employment at no less than the wage rates and substantially equivalent fringe benefits received before the transition.
(2) The costs resulting from subsection (1) shall include audited and verified employee-related restructuring costs that are incurred as a result of the amendatory act that added this section or as a result of prior commission restructuring orders, including employee severance costs, employee retraining programs, early retirement programs, outplacement programs, and similar costs and programs, that have been approved and found to be prudently incurred by the commission.
(3) In the event of a sale, purchase, or any other transfer of ownership of 1 or more Michigan divisions or business units, or generating stations or generating units, of an electric utility, to either a third party or a utility subsidiary, the electric utility's contract and agreements with the acquiring entity or persons shall require all of the following for a period of at least 30 months:
(a) That the acquiring entity or persons hire a sufficient number of nonsupervisory employees to safely and reliably operate and maintain the station, division, or unit by making offers of employment to the nonsupervisory workforce of the electric utility's division, business unit, generating station, or generating unit.
(b) That the acquiring entity or persons not employ nonsupervisory employees from outside the electric utility's workforce unless offers of employment have been made to all qualified nonsupervisory employees of the acquired business unit or facility.
(c) That the acquiring entity or persons have a dispute resolution mechanism culminating in a final and binding decision by a neutral third party for resolving employee complaints or disputes over wages, fringe benefits, and working conditions.
(d) That the acquiring entity or persons offer employment at no less than the wage rates and substantially equivalent fringe benefits and terms and conditions of employment that are in effect at the time of transfer of ownership of the division, business unit, generating station, or generating unit. The wage rates and substantially equivalent fringe benefits and terms and conditions of employment shall continue for at least 30 months from the time of the transfer of ownership unless the employees, or where applicable collective bargaining representative, and the new employer mutually agree to different terms and conditions of employment within that 30-month period.
(4) The electric utility shall offer a transition plan to those employees who are not offered jobs by the entity because the entity has a need for fewer workers. If there is litigation concerning the sale, or other transfer of ownership of the electric utility's divisions, business units, generating stations, or generating units, the 30-month period under subsection (3) begins on the date the acquiring entity or persons take control or management of the divisions, business units, generating stations, or generating units of the electric utility.
(5) The commission shall adopt generally applicable service quality and reliability standards for the transmission, generation, and distribution systems of electric utilities and other entities subject to its jurisdiction, including, but not limited to, standards for service outages, distribution facility upgrades, repairs and maintenance, telephone service, billing service, operational reliability, and public and worker safety. In setting service quality and reliability standards, the commission shall consider safety, costs, local geography and weather, applicable codes, national electric industry practices, sound engineering judgment, and experience. The commission shall also include provisions to upgrade the service quality of distribution circuits that historically have experienced significantly below-average performance in relationship to similar distribution circuits.
(6) Annually, each jurisdictional utility or entity shall file its report with the commission detailing actions to be taken to comply with the service quality and reliability standards during the next calendar year and its performance in relation to the service quality and reliability standards during the prior calendar year. The annual reports shall contain that data as required by the commission, including the estimated cost of achieving improvements in the jurisdictional utility's or entity's performance with respect to the service quality and reliability standards.
(7) The commission shall analyze the data to determine whether the jurisdictional entities are properly operating and maintaining their systems and take corrective action if needed.
(8) The commission shall submit a report to the governor and the legislature by September 1, 2009. In preparing the report, the commission should review and consider relevant existing customer surveys and examine what other states have done. This report shall include all of the following:
(a) An assessment of the major types of end-use customer power quality disturbances, including, but not limited to, voltage sags, overvoltages, oscillatory transients, voltage swells, distortion, power frequency variations, and interruptions, caused by both the distribution and transmission systems within this state.
(b) An assessment of utility power plant generating cost efficiency, including, but not limited to, operational efficiency, economic generating cost efficiency, and schedules for planned and unplanned outages.
(c) Current efforts employed by the commission to monitor or enforce standards pertaining to end-use customer power quality disturbances and utility power plant generating cost efficiency either through current practice, statute, policy, or rule.
(d) Recommendations for use of common characteristics, measures, and indices to monitor power quality disturbances and power plant generating cost efficiency, such as expert customer service assessments, frequency of disturbance occurrence, duration of disturbance, and voltage magnitude.
(e) Recommendations for statutory changes that would be necessary to enable the commission to properly monitor and enforce standards to optimize power plant generating cost efficiency and minimize power quality disturbances. These recommendations shall include recommendations to provide methods to ensure that this state can obtain optimal and cost-effective end-use customer power quality to attract economic development and investment into the state.
(9) By December 31, 2009, the commission shall, based on its findings in subsection (8), review its existing rules under this section and amend the rules, if needed, under the administrative procedures act of 1969, 1969 PA 306, MCL 24.201 to 24.328, to implement performance standards for generation facilities and for distribution facilities to protect end-use customers from power quality disturbances.
(10) Any standards or rules developed under this section shall be designed to do the following, as applicable:
(a) Establish different requirements for each customer class, whenever those different requirements are appropriate to carry out the provisions of this section, and to reflect different load and service characteristics of each customer class.
(b) Consider the availability and associated cost of necessary equipment and labor required to maintain or upgrade distribution and generating facilities.
(c) Ensure that the most cost-effective means of addressing power quality disturbances are promoted for each utility, including consideration of the installation of equipment or adoption of operating practices at the end-user's location.
(d) Take into account the extent to which the benefits associated with achieving a specified standard or improvement are offset by the incremental capital, fuel, and operation and maintenance expenses associated with meeting the specified standard or improvement.
(e) Carefully consider the time frame for achieving a specified standard, taking into account the time required to implement needed investments or modify operating practices.
(11) The commission shall also create benchmarks for individual jurisdictional entities within their rate-making process in order to accomplish the goals of this section to alleviate end-use customer power quality disturbances and promote power plant generating cost efficiency.
(12) The commission shall establish a method for gathering data from the industrial customer class to assist in monitoring power quality and reliability standards related to service characteristics of the industrial customer class.
(13) The commission is authorized to levy financial incentives and penalties upon any jurisdictional entity which exceeds or fails to meet the service quality and reliability standards.
(14) As used in this section, "jurisdictional utility" or "jurisdictional entity" means jurisdictional regulated utility as that term is defined in section 6q.
History: Add. 2000, Act 141, Imd. Eff. June 5, 2000 ;-- Am. 2008, Act 286, Imd. Eff. Oct. 6, 2008
Popular Name: Customer Choice and Electricity Reliability Act
Last modified: October 10, 2016