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An Act To Increase Maine's Energy Competitiveness
Be it enacted by the People of the State of Maine as follows:
Sec. 1.  35-A MRSA §2111  is enacted to read:
§ 2111. Efficient fuel switching financing
 
1.  Eligible utilities.     A transmission and distribution utility or a gas utility may provide a grant or loan to a qualifying customer for the cost of the installation of qualifying fuel switching equipment for a building or facility receiving service within the utility's service territory, including the cost associated with installing new or enhanced connection facilities. The financing charge for a loan must be established by the utility. The utility may include in its rate base the reasonable cost of any grant and the reasonable cost of any loan in excess of amounts recovered from borrowers and may earn a return on such costs based on the utility's weighted average cost of capital as established by the commission for the utility's distribution service and recovered through rates recoverable from all customers. For purposes of this section, costs of a grant or loan that causes a reduction in greenhouse gas emissions from the affected end uses or that reduces the customer's cost of energy consumption for affected end uses by more than 20% are presumptively reasonable.
 
2.  On-bill financing.     To facilitate the repayment of a loan made under subsection 1, periodic financing payments may be included on the bill for utility service that is issued by the qualifying customer's transmission and distribution utility or gas utility, as the case may be. Any administrative or other costs to the utility associated with on-bill financing, including any collection, delinquency or bad debt expenses, must be recovered and retained by the utility as part of the financing payments made by a customer who receives a loan under subsection 1.
 
3.  Rate-making treatment.     The costs and earnings of a transmission and distribution utility or a gas utility attributable to grants and loans made under subsection 1 must be accounted for as direct costs and earnings of the utility for rate-making purposes, and such activities may not be considered unregulated activities under section 713.
 
4.  Rulemaking.     The commission shall adopt any rules necessary to administer this section. Rules adopted under this subsection are routine technical rules pursuant to Title 5, chapter 375, subchapter 2-A.
 
SUMMARY
This bill allows transmission and distribution utilities and gas utilities to provide grants and loans, including loans with on-bill financing, for customers converting to alternative energy sources.