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Amend the bill by striking out the title and substituting the following:
‘An Act To Authorize Load Aggregation for Consumer-owned Electric Utilities’
Amend the bill by striking out everything after the enacting clause and before the summary and inserting the following:
‘Sec. 1. 35-A MRSA §3202, sub-§1,  as enacted by PL 1997, c. 316, §3, is amended to read:
 
1. Right to purchase generation.   Beginning on March 1, 2000, all consumers of electricity have the right to purchase generation services directly from competitive electricity providers, except as provided in subsection 7.
Sec. 2. 35-A MRSA §3202, sub-§7  is enacted to read:
 
7.  Exception; load aggregation by consumer-owned utilities.    The commission may authorize a consumer-owned transmission and distribution utility to aggregate its load for the purpose of purchasing generation services on behalf of its customers. The commission shall adopt rules to implement the provisions of this subsection. The rules must specify the process and requirements for a consumer-owned transmission and distribution utility to obtain approval under this subsection and allowable exceptions under which customers of consumer-owned transmission and distribution utilities that have received such approval may continue to purchase generation services directly from competitive electricity providers. Rules adopted under this subsection are routine technical rules as defined in Title 5, chapter 375, subchapter 2-A.’
 
SUMMARY
This amendment replaces the bill. The amendment establishes an exception to the right to purchase generation from competitive electricity providers for electricity customers in northern Maine, as was established in the bill, while also extending the provision to cover customers of consumer-owned transmission and distribution utilities statewide. The amendment also requires that the exception is subject to approval obtained by the consumer-owned transmission and distribution utility from the Public Utilities Commission.
FISCAL NOTE REQUIRED
(See attached)