Virginia Senate Bill 5118 (Prior Session Legislation)

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Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Democrat 3-0)
Status: Engrossed on September 15 2020 - 50% progression, died in committee
Action: 2020-11-09 - Left in Appropriations
Pending: House Appropriations Committee
Text: Latest bill text (Engrossed) [HTML]

Public utilities; Emergency Debt Repayment Plan. Requires every utility providing electric, gas, or water service that is subject to regulation by the State Corporation Commission (the Commission) to develop an Emergency Debt Repayment Plan (EDRP) for residential customers. The bill requires that an EDRP is designed to ensure that debt repayments accrued during a certain state of emergency or a certain service disconnection moratorium, in addition to the customer's regular utility bill are sustainable and affordable for the customer. The bill provides than EDRP will allow for an up to 12-month repayment period and for a customer to roll over remaining debt with any debt accrued under a subsequent state of emergency. The bill prohibits a utility from requiring any new deposit, application fee, or other new type of advance payment before enrolling a customer in an EDRP and from charging any interest, finance charges, or prepayment penalties on the unpaid debt while the customer is enrolled in an EDRP. The bill prohibits a utility from discontinuing service for any customer enrolled in the program provided the customer remains in compliance with the terms of the EDRP and remains current on the customer's current utility bill. The bill requires the Commission to allow for the timely recovery of certain costs resulting from an EDRP for jurisdictional utilities, including through a rate adjustment clause or through base rates and provides that the Commission may apply any applicable earnings test in the Commission rules governing utility rate applications and annual informational filings when assessing the recovery of such costs. The bill provides that it does not confer any additional jurisdiction or authority to the Commission. Public utilities; Emergency Debt Repayment Plan. Requires every utility providing electric, gas, or water service that is subject to regulation by the State Corporation Commission (the Commission) to develop an Emergency Debt Repayment Plan (EDRP) for residential customers. The bill requires that an EDRP is designed to ensure that debt repayments accrued during a certain state of emergency or a certain service disconnection moratorium, in addition to the customer's regular utility bill are sustainable and affordable for the customer. The bill provides than EDRP will allow for an up to 12-month repayment period and for a customer to roll over remaining debt with any debt accrued under a subsequent state of emergency. The bill prohibits a utility from requiring any new deposit, application fee, or other new type of advance payment before enrolling a customer in an EDRP and from charging any interest, finance charges, or prepayment penalties on the unpaid debt while the customer is enrolled in an EDRP. The bill prohibits a utility from discontinuing service for any customer enrolled in the program provided the customer remains in compliance with the terms of the EDRP and remains current on the customer's current utility bill. The bill requires the Commission to allow for the timely recovery of certain costs resulting from an EDRP for jurisdictional utilities, including through a rate adjustment clause or through base rates and provides that the Commission may apply any applicable earnings test in the Commission rules governing utility rate applications and annual informational filings when assessing the recovery of such costs. The bill provides that it does not confer any additional jurisdiction or authority to the Commission. The bill requires each jurisdictional utility to report certain information to the Commission and for the Commission to report such information to the chairs of the House Committees on Labor and Commerce and Appropriations and the Senate Committees on Commerce and Labor and Finance and Appropriations. The bill requires municipal utilities, upon the request of the chairs of such committees to submit a report to such committees. The bill also requires the Commission to submit an additional report to the chairs of the House Committees on Labor and Commerce and Appropriations and the Senate Committees on Commerce and Labor and Finance and Appropriations.

Emergency Debt Repayment Plan; every jurisdictional utility to develop.

Sen. Jennifer McClellan [D]

Sen. Barbara Favola [D]

Sen. Ghazala Hashmi [D]

2020-09-16 - Senate - Senate: Passed Senate (24-Y 12-N 1-A) (Y: 24 N: 12 NV: 3 Abs: 1) [PASS]
2020-09-16 - Senate - Senate: Reconsideration of Senate passage agreed to by Senate (35-Y 2-N) (Y: 35 N: 2 NV: 3 Abs: 0) [PASS]
2020-09-16 - Senate - Senate: Read third time and passed Senate (22-Y 13-N 1-A) (Y: 22 N: 13 NV: 4 Abs: 1) [PASS]
2020-09-10 - Senate - Senate: Constitutional reading dispensed (40-Y 0-N) (Y: 40 N: 0 NV: 0 Abs: 0) [PASS]
2020-09-09 - Senate - Senate: Reported from Finance and Appropriations with amendments (12-Y 1-N 2-A) (Y: 12 N: 1 NV: 0 Abs: 2) [PASS]
2020-08-28 - Senate - Senate: Reported from Commerce and Labor with substitute (8-Y 5-N 1-A) (Y: 8 N: 5 NV: 0 Abs: 1) [PASS]

Date	Chamber	Action
2020-11-09	House	Left in Appropriations
2020-09-17	House	Referred to Committee on Appropriations
2020-09-17	House	Read first time
2020-09-17	House	Placed on Calendar
2020-09-16	Senate	Passed Senate (24-Y 12-N 1-A)
2020-09-16	Senate	Reconsideration of Senate passage agreed to by Senate (35-Y 2-N)
2020-09-16	Senate	Read third time and passed Senate (22-Y 13-N 1-A)
2020-09-15	Senate	Printed as engrossed 20201077D-ES1
2020-09-15	Senate	Engrossed by Senate - committee substitute with amendments SB5118ES1
2020-09-15	Senate	Committee amendments agreed to
2020-09-15	Senate	Reading of amendments waived
2020-09-15	Senate	Committee substitute agreed to 20201077D-S1
2020-09-15	Senate	Reading of substitute waived
2020-09-15	Senate	Read second time
2020-09-10	Senate	Constitutional reading dispensed (40-Y 0-N)
2020-09-09	Senate	Reported from Finance and Appropriations with amendments (12-Y 1-N 2-A)
2020-08-28	Senate	Rereferred to Finance and Appropriations
2020-08-28	Senate	Committee substitute printed 20201077D-S1
2020-08-28	Senate	Reported from Commerce and Labor with substitute (8-Y 5-N 1-A)
2020-08-19	Senate	Referred to Committee on Commerce and Labor
2020-08-19	Senate	Presented and ordered printed 20200398D

Type	Source
Summary	https://lis.virginia.gov/cgi-bin/legp604.exe?202+sum+SB5118
Text	https://lis.virginia.gov/cgi-bin/legp604.exe?202+ful+SB5118+hil
Text	https://lis.virginia.gov/cgi-bin/legp604.exe?202+ful+SB5118S1+hil
Text	https://lis.virginia.gov/cgi-bin/legp604.exe?202+ful+SB5118ES1+hil
Roll Call	https://lis.virginia.gov/cgi-bin/legp604.exe?202+vot+S02V0012+SB5118
Roll Call	https://lis.virginia.gov/cgi-bin/legp604.exe?202+vot+S05V0030+SB5118
Roll Call	https://lis.virginia.gov/cgi-bin/legp604.exe?202+vot+SV0108SB5118+SB5118
Roll Call	https://lis.virginia.gov/cgi-bin/legp604.exe?202+vot+SV0124SB5118+SB5118
Roll Call	https://lis.virginia.gov/cgi-bin/legp604.exe?202+vot+SV0127SB5118+SB5118
Roll Call	https://lis.virginia.gov/cgi-bin/legp604.exe?202+vot+SV0128SB5118+SB5118