Sec. 1. 35-A MRSA §3195, sub-§6, as amended by PL 1999, c. 398, Pt. A, §71 and affected by §§104 and 105, is further amended to read:

6. Rate flexibility. Notwithstanding sections 307 and 703, the commission, in an adjudicatory proceeding, may authorize a transmission and distribution utility to implement a program under which:

A. The utility may change its schedule of rates with limited notice to the commission; and

B. The utility may enter into contracts for the sale of transmission and distribution services and related management services with limited or no prior express approval by the commission.

The commission shall render its decision in any adjudicatory proceeding held for the purposes of authorizing a utility to implement a program consistent with this subsection within 9 months of the initiation of the proceeding. In the adjudicatory proceeding, the commission shall establish the terms and conditions under which a program is authorized under this subsection. The authority granted to the commission under this subsection is in addition to the authority of the commission granted under other provisions of this Title and nothing in this subsection may be construed to limit the authority of the commission under any other provision of this Title.

In the negotiation of special rate contracts, a transmission and distribution utility may not discriminate unreasonably among special rate customers in the cost assumptions employed to price the customer's alternative source of electricity or energy.__A transmission and distribution utility may use its best judgment to determine the likelihood of the customer's reliance on an alternative source of electricity or energy and may reflect that judgment in the terms of the special rate contract.

The failure of an existing special rate customer to install or otherwise arrange to rely upon that alternative source of electricity or energy may not be a basis for the refusal of a transmission and distribution utility to timely renew an existing special rate contract when the original alternative source of electricity or energy, if it had been installed or relied upon as originally proposed, would have continued to be available to the customer beyond the term of the existing special rate contract.