Bill Text: HI SB2997 | 2024 | Regular Session | Amended

Hawaii Senate Bill 2997

Bill Title: Relating To Public Utilities.

Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Democrat 1-0)

Status: (Engrossed) 2024-03-18 - The committee(s) on CPC/JHA recommend(s) that the measure be deferred. [SB2997 Detail]

Download: Hawaii-2024-SB2997-Amended.html

THE SENATE	S.B. NO.	2997
THIRTY-SECOND LEGISLATURE, 2024		S.D. 2
STATE OF HAWAII		H.D. 1

A BILL FOR AN ACT

RELATING TO PUBLIC UTILITIES.

BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF HAWAII:

SECTION 1. The legislature finds that the risk of catastrophic wildfires has increased, making it imperative that electric utilities develop, implement, and administer effective plans for wildfire risk mitigation. Electric utilities should develop, implement, and administer wildfire protection plans, and, through a public process, the public utilities commission should review and approve such plans.

The legislature also finds that a resilience working group, convened throughout 2019 and 2020, sought to: (1) identify and prioritize resilience threat scenarios and potential grid impacts; (2) identify key customer and infrastructure sector capabilities and needs following a severe event and loss of power; (3) identify gaps and priorities in grid and customer capabilities following a severe event and loss of power; (4) provide recommendations and inputs for investor-owned utility grid planning to address resilience needs; and (5) recommend additional grid and customer actions to close gaps and capabilities following severe events. The resilience working group identified wildfires as one of five types of severe events of utmost importance to consider for achieving a resilient grid and provided resilience options for utilities to consider.

The purpose of this Act is to:

(1) Create a process whereby electric utilities develop and submit effective risk-based wildfire protection plans to the public utilities commission for approval and the commission evaluates those plans and either approves them or does so with modifications; and

(2) Require public utilities to report wildfires caused by or occurring in connection with their operations.

SECTION 2. Chapter 269, Hawaii Revised Statutes, is amended by adding a new part to be appropriately designated and to read as follows:

"PART . WILDFIRE PROTECTION AND MITIGATION

§269-A Definitions. As used in this part:

"Commission" means the public utilities commission.

"Electric utility" means a public utility that is engaged in the production, transmission, or distribution of electricity.

"Wildfire protection plan" means the risk-based wildfire protection plan mandated by section 269-C(a) and approved by the commission.

§269-B Electric utility workshops. The commission may periodically convene workshops to help electric utilities develop and share information for the identification, adoption, and implementation of best practices regarding wildfires, including but not limited to risk-based wildfire protection and risk-based wildfire mitigation procedures and standards.

§269-C Wildfire protection plans. (a) Each electric utility shall have and operate in compliance with a risk-based wildfire protection plan, which shall be filed with and evaluated by the commission. The risk-based wildfire protection plan shall be based on reasonable and prudent practices, which may be identified through workshops convened by the commission pursuant to section 269-B, regulatory proceedings conducted by the commission, and commission standards adopted by rule or order. The electric utility shall design the risk-based wildfire protection plan to protect public safety, reduce risk to electric utility customers, and promote resilience of the Hawaii electric system to wildfire damage. Each electric utility's wildfire protection plan shall, at a minimum:

(1) Account for the responsibilities of persons responsible for executing the plan;

(2) Describe the objectives of the plan;

(3) Identify areas that are subject to a heightened risk of wildfire and are:

(A) Within the right of way or legal control or ownership of the electric utility; and

(B) Outside the right of way or legal control or ownership of the electric utility but within a reasonable distance, as determined by the commission, of the electric utility's generation or transmission assets;

(4) Identify a means for mitigating wildfire risk that reflects a reasonable balancing of mitigation costs continuity of reliable service and reduction of wildfire risk;

(5) Identify preventive actions and programs that the electric utility shall carry out to minimize the risk of electric utility facilities causing wildfire;

(6) Identify the metrics the electric utility plans to use to evaluate the plan's performance and the assumptions that underlie the use of those metrics;

(7) Describe how the application of previously identified metrics to previous plan performances has informed the plan;

(8) After seeking information from state and local entities, identify a protocol for the deenergizing of power lines and adjusting of power system operations to mitigate wildfires, promote the safety of the public and first responders, and preserve health and communication infrastructure;

(9) Describe appropriate and feasible procedures for notifying a customer who may be impacted by the deenergizing of electrical lines. The procedures shall consider the need to notify, as a priority, critical first responders, health care facilities, operators of wastewater and water delivery infrastructure, and operators of telecommunications infrastructure;

(10) Describe the procedures, standards, and time frames that the electric utility shall use to inspect electric utility infrastructure in areas that the electric utility identifies under paragraph (3), including whether those procedures, standards, and time frames are already set forth in the electric utility's existing plans or protocols and in coordination with any relevant entities;

(11) Describe the procedures, standards, and time frames that the electric utility will use to carry out vegetation management in areas that the electric utility identifies under paragraph (3), including whether those procedures, standards, and time frames are already set forth in the electric utility's existing plans or protocols and in coordination with any relevant entities;

(12) Include a list that identifies, describes, and prioritizes all wildfire risks, and drivers for those risks, throughout the electric utility's service territory. The list shall include but not be limited to the following:

(A) Risks and risk drivers associated with design, construction, operations, and maintenance of the electric utility's equipment and facilities; and

(B) Particular risks and risk drivers associated with topographic and climatological risk factors throughout the different parts of the electric utility's service territory;

(13) Describe how the plan accounts for the wildfire risk identified in the electric utility's risk assessment;

(14) Describe the actions the electric utility will take to ensure its system will achieve the highest level of safety, reliability, and resiliency, and to ensure that its system is prepared for a wildfire, including hardening and modernizing its infrastructure with improved engineering, system design, standards, equipment, and facilities, including but not limited to undergrounding lines, insulation of distribution wires, and pole replacement;

(15) Demonstrate that the electric utility has an adequately sized and trained workforce to promptly restore service after a wildfire, taking into account employees of other utilities pursuant to mutual aid agreements and employees of entities that have entered into contracts with the electric utility;

(16) Identify the estimated development, implementation, and administration costs for the plan;

(17) Identify the timelines, as applicable, for development, implementation, and administration of any aspects of the plan;

(18) Describe how the plan is consistent with the electric utility's other hazard mitigation and grid hardening plans, including plans to prepare for, and to restore service after, a wildfire, including workforce mobilization and prepositioning equipment and employees;

(19) Identify community outreach and public awareness efforts that the electric utility will use before, during, and after a wildfire;

(20) Describe the processes and procedures the electric utility will use to do all of the following:

(A) Monitor and audit the implementation of the plan;

(B) Identify any deficiencies in the plan or the plan's implementation and correct those deficiencies; and

(C) Monitor and audit the effectiveness of electrical line and equipment inspections, including inspections performed by contractors, carried out under the plan and other applicable statutes and rules of the commission;

(21) Demonstrate elements of data governance, including enterprise systems; and

(22) Any modifications to paragraphs (1) to (21), or other information as required by the commission.

(b) Each electric utility shall regularly update its risk-based wildfire protection plan on a schedule determined by the commission.

(c) To develop the risk-based wildfire protection plan, the electric utility may consult with and consider information from federal, state, local, and other expert entities.

(d) The commission, in consultation with the department of land and natural resources, Hawaii emergency management agency, and local emergency services agencies, shall evaluate each electric utility's risk-based wildfire protection plan and plan updates through a public process.

(e) No more than ninety days after the last party filing, and no more than a total of one hundred eighty days after the initial filing in the docket or non-docketed case related to the commission's evaluation of a risk-based wildfire protection plan or plan update from an electric utility, the commission shall approve or approve with conditions the plan or update if the commission finds that the plan or update is based on reasonable and prudent practices and designed to meet all applicable rules and standards adopted by the commission. The commission may, in approving the plan or update with conditions, direct the electric utility to make modifications to the plan or updates that the commission believes represent a reasonable balancing of mitigation costs with the resulting reduction of wildfire risk based on the information provided by the electric utility and based on best practices. The commission shall issue a decision explaining any such directed modifications at the time it approves the plan.

(f) The electric utility shall track the costs that it actually incurs to develop, implement, and administer the risk-based wildfire protection plan. In the electric utility's risk-based wildfire protection plan update, the electric utility shall report on the costs as actually incurred for the most recent past period for which the information is available.

If the actual costs are less than the amounts that the commission determined were reasonable in its decision under subsection (e), the commission shall direct the electric utility to refund or credit the costs to ratepayers.

If the actual costs are equal to or greater than the amounts that the commission determined were reasonable in its decision under subsection (e), the commission shall not direct the electric utility to refund to ratepayers the amount the commission previously determined was reasonable but may disallow the recovery from ratepayers of any additional costs the commission finds unreasonable.

(g) The commission's approval of a risk-based wildfire protection plan does not by itself establish a defense to any enforcement action for violation of a commission rule or order, or relieve an electric utility from proactively managing wildfire risk, including by monitoring emerging practices and technologies. Electric utilities are expected to continuously improve and take reasonable actions outside of approved plans to mitigate wildfire risk.

(h) The commission shall, as appropriate, adopt rules or issue orders for the implementation of this section. The rules or orders may include but need not be limited to procedures and standards regarding data governance, risk-based decision-making, vegetation management, public power safety shutoffs and restorations, pole materials, circuitry, and monitoring systems.

§269-D Penalties. In addition to any other penalties provided by law, a failure by an electric utility to comply with an approved plan or part of an approved plan shall be subject to a civil penalty, as determined by the commission. Imposition of penalties pursuant to this section shall otherwise be in accordance with section 269-28 and all applicable administrative rules. All moneys collected under this section shall be deposited into the public utilities commission special fund."

SECTION 3. Section 269-9, Hawaii Revised Statutes, is amended to read as follows:

"§269-9 Report accidents. (a) Every public utility shall report to the public utilities commission all accidents and wildfires potentially caused by or occurring in connection with its operations and service, and the commission shall investigate the causes of [~~any~~]:

(1) Any accident [~~which results~~] that resulted in the loss of life[,]; and

(2) Any wildfires that:

(A) May have been caused by a public utility;

(B) Destroyed a significant amount of public utility equipment; or

may investigate any other accidents which in its opinion require investigation.

(b) The public utility's reporting of an accident or wildfire under this section shall not be admissible evidence in any judicial, administrative, or other governmental proceeding for purposes of establishing that the wildfire was caused by the public utility."

SECTION 4. In codifying the new sections added by section 2 of this Act, the revisor of statutes shall substitute appropriate section numbers for the letters used in designating the new sections in this Act.

SECTION 5. Statutory material to be repealed is bracketed and stricken. New statutory material is underscored.

SECTION 6. This Act shall take effect on July 1, 3000.

Report Title:

PUC; Wildfires; Electric Utilities; Risk-based Wildfire Protection Plans; Mitigation; Wildfire Reporting

Description:

Creates a process for electric utilities to develop and submit risk-based wildfire protection plans to the Public Utilities Commission for approval. Requires public utilities to report wildfires potentially caused by or occurring in connection with their operations. Effective 7/1/3000. (HD1)

The summary description of legislation appearing on this page is for informational purposes only and is not legislation or evidence of legislative intent.