New York Laws
Article 4 - Provisions Relating to Gas and Electric Corporations; Regulation of Price of Gas and Electricity
66 - General Powers of Commission in Respect to Gas and Electricity.

(b) No change shall be made in any rate or charge, or in any form of
contract or agreement or any rule or regulation relating to any rate,
charge or service, or in any general privilege or facility, which shall
have been filed by a utility in compliance with an order of the
commission, except after thirty days' notice to the commission and to
each county, city, town and village served by such utility which had
filed with such utility, within the prior twelve months, a request for
such notice and which shall be affected by such change and publication
of a notice to the public of such proposed change once in each week for
four successive weeks in a newspaper having general circulation in each
county containing territory affected by the proposed change, which
notice shall plainly state the changes proposed and when the change will
go into effect. The commission for good cause shown may, except in the
case of major changes, allow changes to take effect prior to the end of
such thirty-day period and without publication of notice to the public
under such conditions as it may prescribe. The commission may delegate
to the secretary of the commission its authority to approve a change to
a schedule postponing the effective date of such schedule previously
filed with the commission and to allow for good cause shown the
postponement to take effect prior to the end of such thirty-day period
and without publication of notice to the public.
(c) For the purpose of this subdivision, "major changes" shall mean an
increase in the rates and charges which would increase the aggregate
revenues of the applicant more than the greater of three hundred
thousand dollars or two and one-half percent, but shall not include
changes in rates, charges or rentals (i) allowed to go into effect by
the commission or made by the utility pursuant to an order of the
commission after hearings held upon notice to the public, or (ii)
proposed by a municipality.
(d) No utility shall charge, demand, collect or receive a greater or
less or different compensation for any service rendered or to be
rendered than the rates and charges specified in its schedule filed and
in effect; nor shall any utility refund or remit in any manner or by any
device any portion of the rates or charges so specified, nor extend to
any person any form of contract or agreement, or any rule or regulation,
or any privilege or facility, except such as are regularly and uniformly
extended to all persons under like circumstances.
(e) The commission shall have power to prescribe the form of every
such schedule, and from time to time prescribe by order such changes in
the form thereof as may be deemed wise. The commission shall also have
power to establish such rules and regulations to carry into effect this
subdivision as it may deem necessary, and to modify or amend such rules
or regulations from time to time. Nothing in this chapter shall be taken
to prohibit a utility from establishing sliding scale upward rates,
beginning at a fixed price per unit for a small consumption and then
increasing the price per unit as the consumption is increased.
(f) Whenever there shall be filed with the commission by any utility
any schedule stating a new rate or charge, or any change in any form of
contract or agreement or any rule or regulation relating to any rate,
charge or service, or in any general privilege or facility, the
commission may, at any time within sixty days from the date when such
schedule would or has become effective, either upon complaint or upon
its own initiative, and, if it so orders, without answer or other formal
pleading by the utility, but upon reasonable notice, hold a hearing
concerning the propriety of a change proposed by the filing. If such
change is a major change, the commission shall hold such a hearing.
Pending such hearing and decision thereon, the commission, upon filing
with such schedule and delivering to the utility, a statement in writing
of its reasons therefor, may suspend the operation of such schedule, but
not for a longer period than one hundred and twenty days beyond the time
when it would otherwise go into effect. After full hearing, whether
completed before or after the schedule goes into effect, the commission
may make such order in reference thereto as would be proper in a
proceeding begun after the rate, charge, form of contract or agreement,
rule, regulation, service, general privilege or facility had become
effective. If any such hearing cannot be concluded within the period of
suspension as above stated, the commission may extend the suspension for
a further period, not exceeding six months.
(g) The commission shall review all filings to determine if they are
in compliance with section seventy-two-a of this article. The commission
shall have the power to hold public hearings concerning the propriety of
any increased rate or charge for fuel costs. At any hearing involving
such an increase, the burden of proof as to the correctness and
reasonableness of the charge shall be upon the utility.
(h) The commission may, as authorized by section seventy-two of this
article, establish temporary rates or charges for any period of
suspension under this section.
(i) At any hearing involving a rate, the burden of proof to show that
the change or proposed change if proposed by the utility, or that the
existing rate, if it is proposed to reduce the rate, is just and
reasonable shall be upon the utility; and the commission may give to the
hearing and decision of such questions preference over all other
questions pending before it.
(j) The schedule, rates, charges, form of contract or agreement, rule,
regulation, service, general privilege or facility in force when the new
schedule, rate, charge, form of contract, rule, regulation, service,
general privilege or facility was filed shall continue in force during
the period of the suspension unless the commission shall establish a
temporary rate or charge as authorized by section seventy-two of this
article.
(k) In any case in which the commission determines that the whole or
any part of any increased rate or charge imposed by a utility pursuant
to any automatic adjustment, including but not limited to any fuel
adjustment, was not just and reasonable, because of a lack of reasonable
care on the part of the utility in providing gas or electric service,
the commission may order the utility to refund, with interest, any
moneys collected by the utility pursuant to such whole or part of such
increased rate or charge. In determining whether a utility exercised
reasonable care in providing gas or electric service, the commission
shall take into account the public health and safety consequences, and
the economic consequences to ratepayers, of the utility's actions.
12-a. Have power to fix and alter the format and informational
requirements of bills utilized by public and private gas corporations,
electric corporations and gas and electric corporations in levying

charges for service, to assure simplicity and clarity and to require
indication of any adjustment charges, including but not limited to fuel
adjustments, in monetary amounts. The commission shall further ensure
periodic explanation of applicable rates and rate schedules for the
purpose of assisting customers in making the most efficient use of
energy.
12-b. (a) In consultation with the commissioner of the department of
commerce have power 1. to designate as economic incentive areas specific
areas in which reduced economic activity, unemployment and
underutilization of utility facilities justifies the approval of reduced
incentive rates for utility services, and to promulgate criteria for
identifying such areas and customers eligible for such rates. Upon
application of a utility corporation the commission shall authorize
special economic incentive rates in such areas to such customers and for
such periods of time as the commission finds will best effectuate the
purposes of this subdivision. The commission may also provide for the
gradual elimination of the rate reduction authorized, and for the
elimination of such reduction, if any conditions imposed by the
commission are not met. 2. to designate or form classes of customers as
appropriate for special rates or tariffs, in order to prevent loss of
such customers, or to attract new customers where necessary to maintain
economic use of utility facilities.
Any such special rate or tariff shall be so designed as to recover the
incremental cost of providing service to such customers and to
contribute to the common costs which otherwise would be borne by other
customers.
(b) The commission may also authorize utility corporations to contract
with existing or prospective industrial and commercial customers to
wheel or deliver electricity or gas purchased directly by such
customers, provided that the commission finds that such arrangements are
in the overall best interest of the rate payers of the corporation, and
that the rates and fees for the services provided adequately compensate
the corporation for the use of its facilities.
12-c. Notwithstanding any other provision of law, upon application of
a gas or electric corporation, the commission shall authorize such
corporation to charge a special empire zone rate equal to the
incremental cost of providing service to customers certified as eligible
for such rate pursuant to article eighteen-B of the general municipal
law.
12-d. Notwithstanding any other provision of law, upon application of
a gas or electric corporation, the commission shall authorize such
corporation to charge a special excelsior jobs program rate equal to the
incremental cost of providing service to participants in the excelsior
jobs program as defined in article seventeen of the economic development
law.
13. In case any electric corporation or gas corporation is engaged in
carrying on any business other than owning, operating or managing a gas
plant or an electric plant, which other business is not otherwise
subject to the jurisdiction of the commission, and is so conducted that
its operations are to be substantially kept separate and apart from the
owning, operating, managing or controlling of such gas plant or electric
plant, said corporation in respect of such other business shall not be
subject to any of the provisions of this chapter and shall not be
required to procure the assent or authorization of the commission to any
act in such other business or to make any report in respect thereof. But
this subdivision shall not restrict or limit the powers of the
commission in respect to the owning, operating, managing or controlling
by such corporation of such gas plant or electric plant, and said powers

shall include also the right to inquire as to, and prescribe the
apportionment of, capitalization, earnings, debts and expenses fairly
and justly to be awarded to or borne by the ownership, operation,
management or control of such gas plant or electric plant as
distinguished from such other business. In any such case if the owning,
operating, managing or controlling of such gas plant or electric plant
by any such corporation is wholly subsidiary and incidental to the other
business carried on by it and is inconsiderable in amount and not
general in its character, the commission may by general rules exempt
such corporation from making full reports and from the keeping of
accounts as to such subsidiary and incidental business. Where the
permission granted such corporation pursuant to section sixty-eight is
to supply gas only to less than twenty customers specified by the
commission, the commission may, if the public interest permits, exempt
such corporation from compliance with all or any of the provisions of
this article except those affecting matters of public safety and the
provisions of sections sixty-five, sixty-eight and seventy-four.
14. The commission shall have power to require each gas corporation
and electric corporation to establish classifications of service based
upon the quantity used, the time when used, the purpose for which used,
the duration of use and upon any other reasonable consideration, and to
establish in connection therewith just and reasonable graduated rates
and charges; and it shall have power, either upon complaint or upon its
own motion, to require such changes in such classifications, rates and
charges as it shall determine to be just and reasonable. Neither the
scheduled rates nor the minimum charge for residential customers shall,
after July first, nineteen hundred thirty-seven, be based in any manner
on the number of outlets, number of rooms, cubic or square foot area or
other such standards.
15. Receive, and any gas corporation may at any time submit to the
commission for its approval, one or more contracts proposed to be made
by it for the purchase from the producer of by-product gas, to be used
in its service to its consumers, in which said proposed contract the
price of gas shall be based on the then market price of coal, and to
vary therewith whenever the market price of coal shall vary to the
extent of ten per centum for a period of not less than thirty days, and
which said contract shall state the efficiency of said gas, and upon the
approval of said contract by the commission, or said contract as the
same may be amended, altered or changed, and upon the application of
said gas corporation, the commission shall make an order fixing the rate
or rates to be charged to consumers for the service of such gas, which
said rate shall thereafter remain unchanged during the term of said
contract in so far as said rate shall be based on the cost of gas to
said corporation, except as such cost shall vary with the variations in
the price of coal as in said contract provided. The commission shall
have like powers and duties with reference to existing contracts made
prior to January first, nineteen hundred and twenty-two, by a gas
corporation for a supply of by-product gas where the price of gas varies
as the price of coal varies. By-product, as used in this section, is
defined to mean one of the several products obtained by treatment of
coal by some process other than the customary distillation in retorts.
16. The commission shall have power after a hearing on its own motion,
upon complaint or upon the application of a gas corporation or electric
corporation to prescribe rates and charges for gas, electricity or other
service rendered or to be rendered, embodying the automatic adjustment
of such rates and charges, over a fixed period not exceeding four years,
based on the relation between the net income from such rates and charges
available for return and the fair value of the property of the

corporation used and useful in said service; but nothing in this
subdivision shall operate to prevent the commission after the expiration
of such fixed period from fixing proper, just and reasonable rates and
charges to be made for gas, electricity or service as authorized in this
article.
17. Notwithstanding the provisions of this article, any gas
corporation which transports natural gas through the state of New York
but which does not deliver, sell or furnish any such gas to any person
or corporation within the state of New York, shall be subject to
regulation by the commission only insofar as the construction and
operation of such facilities shall affect matters of public safety.
19. (a) The commission shall have power to provide for management and
operations audits of gas corporations and electric corporations. Such
audits shall be performed at least once every five years for combination
gas and electric corporations, as well as for straight gas corporations
having annual gross revenues in excess of two hundred million dollars.
The audit shall include, but not be limited to, an investigation of the
company's construction program planning in relation to the needs of its
customers for reliable service, an evaluation of the efficiency of the
company's operations, an evaluation of customer privacy protections,
including but not limited to customer electrical and gas consumption
data, and protection of critical energy infrastructure as defined in
subdivision fourteen of section 1-103 of the energy law, recommendations
with respect to same, and the timing with respect to the implementation
of such recommendations. The commission shall have discretion to have
such audits performed by its staff, or by independent auditors.
In every case in which the commission chooses to have the audit
provided for in this subdivision or pursuant to subdivision fourteen of
section sixty-five of this article performed by independent auditors, it
shall have authority to select the auditors, and to require the company
being audited to enter into a contract with the auditors providing for
their payment by the company. Such contract shall provide further that
the auditors shall work for and under the direction of the commission
according to such terms as the commission may determine are necessary
and reasonable.
(b) Each corporation subject to an audit under this subdivision shall
file a report with the commission within thirty days after issuance of
such audit detailing its plan to implement the recommendations made in
the audit. After review of such plan, the commission may require each
combined electric and gas corporation amend its plan in a particular
manner. Such plan shall thereafter become enforceable upon approval by
the commission. The commission shall have power to commence a proceeding
to examine any such corporation's compliance with the recommendations of
such audit.
(c) Upon the application of a gas or electric corporation for a major
change in rates as defined in subdivision twelve of this section, the
commission shall review that corporation's compliance with the
directions and recommendations made previously by the commission, as a
result of the most recently completed management and operations audit.
The commission shall incorporate the findings of such review in its
opinion or order, and such findings shall be enforceable by the
commission.
(d) The commission shall have the power to provide for an annual audit
of gas corporations and electric corporations relating to the adequacy
of cyber-security policies, protocols, procedures and protections
including, but not limited to, as such policies, protocols, procedures
and protections relate to critical energy infrastructure as defined in
subdivision fourteen of section 1-103 of the energy law and customer

privacy including but not limited to customer electric and gas
consumption data. The commission shall have the discretion to have such
audits performed by its staff or by an independent third party.
20. Notwithstanding any general or special law, rule or regulation,
the commission shall have the power to provide for the refund of any
revenues received by any gas or electric corporation which cause the
corporation to have revenues in the aggregate in excess of its
authorized rate of return for a period of twelve months. The commission
may initiate a proceeding with respect to such a refund after the
conclusion of any such twelve month period.
21. (a) Each electric corporation subject to section twenty-five-a of
this chapter shall annually, on or before December fifteenth, submit to
the commission an emergency response plan for review and approval. The
emergency response plan shall be designed for the reasonably prompt
restoration of service in the case of an emergency event, defined for
purposes of this subdivision as an event where widespread outages have
occurred in the service territory of the company due to storms, cyber
attack, or other causes beyond the control of the company. The emergency
response plan shall include, but need not be limited to, the following:
(i) the identification of management staff responsible for company
operations during an emergency; (ii) a communications system with
customers during an emergency that extends beyond normal business hours
and business conditions; (iii) identification of and outreach plans to
customers who had documented their need for essential electricity for
medical needs, which shall include but not be limited to, apnea monitors
for infants, cuirass respirators, hemodialysis machines, IV feeding
machines, IV medical infusion machines, oxygen concentrators, positive
pressure respirators, respirator/ventilators, rocking bed respirators,
suction machines, and tank type respirators; (iv) identification of and
outreach plans to customers who had documented their need for essential
electricity to provide critical telecommunications, critical
transportation, critical fuel distribution services or other large-load
customers identified by the commission; (v) designation of company staff
to communicate with local officials and appropriate regulatory agencies;
(vi) provisions regarding how the company will assure the safety of its
employees and contractors; (vii) procedures for deploying company and
mutual aid crews to work assignment areas; (viii) identification of
additional supplies and equipment needed during an emergency; (ix) the
means of obtaining additional supplies and equipment; (x) procedures to
practice the emergency response plan; (xi) appropriate safety
precautions regarding electrical hazards, including plans to promptly
secure downed wires within thirty-six hours of notification of the
location of such downed wires from a municipal emergency official; (xii)
plans setting forth how the communication and coordination of efforts
between the electric corporation, electric corporation employees,
electric corporation company crews, mutual aid crews, other utilities,
local governments and any other entity performing services to assist
such electric corporation shall occur; and (xiii) such other additional
information as the commission may require. Each such corporation shall,
on an annual basis, undertake drills implementing procedures to practice
its emergency management plan. The commission may adopt additional
requirements consistent with ensuring the reasonably prompt restoration
of service in the case of an emergency event.
(b) After review of a corporation's emergency response plan, the
commission may require such corporation to amend the plan. The
commission may also open an investigation of the corporation's plan to
determine its sufficiency to respond adequately to an emergency event.
If, after hearings, the commission finds a material deficiency in the

plan, it may order the company to make such modifications that it deems
reasonably necessary to remedy the deficiency.
(c) The commission is authorized to open an investigation to review
the performance of any corporation in restoring service or otherwise
meeting the requirements of the emergency response plan during an
emergency event. If, after evidentiary hearings or other investigatory
proceedings, the commission finds that the corporation failed to
reasonably implement its emergency response plan or the length of such
corporation's outages were materially longer than they would have been,
because of such corporation's failure to reasonably implement its
emergency response plan, the commission may deny the recovery of any
part of the service restoration costs caused by such failure,
commensurate with the degree and impact of the service outage; provided,
however, that nothing herein limits the commission's authority to
otherwise commence a proceeding pursuant to sections twenty-four,
twenty-five and twenty-five-a of this chapter.
(d) The commission shall certify to the department of homeland
security and emergency services that each such corporation's emergency
response plan is sufficient to ensure to the greatest extent feasible
the timely and safe restoration of energy services after an emergency in
compliance with the requirements of this chapter.
(e) The filing of each emergency response plan required under
paragraph (a) of this subdivision shall also include a copy of all
written mutual assistance agreements among utilities.
(f) Each electric corporation shall file with the county executive or
the chief elected official of a county for each county within its
service territory the most recent approved copy of the emergency
response plan required pursuant to this section. For the purposes of an
electric corporation operating within the city of New York, such
corporation shall file the most recent approved emergency response plan
with the emergency management office of the city of New York.
(g) The commission shall provide access to such emergency response
plan pursuant to article six of the public officers law.
22. The commission shall permit the recovery through rates established
pursuant to this section of all payments made by electric corporations
pursuant to section twenty-nine-c of the executive law.
23. Require every gas corporation or electric corporation having
equipment containing five hundred parts per million or greater of
polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), including but not limited to,
capacitors and transformers, to submit a report to the commission. The
report shall contain (1) a list of such equipment that is in service,
each unit's location, size and service age, (2) a list of such equipment
that is retired from service after the effective date of this
subdivision, the date each unit was retired from service, and the
location of the facility where the unit and/or PCBs are processed or
stored, (3) the date for shipment of PCBs within or out of New York
state, and (4) a description of the New York state portion of the
shipping route. The commission shall require the report to be updated
and distributed semiannually. In addition, such corporation shall submit
to each county and city located in the service territory of the
corporation a report containing the information listed above for such
equipment and PCBs located in or transported through the county or city
receiving the report.
For the purposes of this subdivision, capacitors, transformers, and
equipment designed to use the PCB-free mineral oil dielectric fluids
shall be presumed to contain concentrations below five hundred parts per
million of PCBs, unless the unit has been serviced with fluid which
contains five hundred parts per million or greater of PCBs, or there is

any other reason to believe that the unit contains or was ever mixed
with fluid with a concentration level of five hundred parts per million
or greater or unless testing has specifically shown otherwise.
24. (a) If a nuclear power plant which is not commercially used and
useful in the actual generation of electricity on the effective date of
this subdivision and which is owned by a single utility on or after the
effective date of this subdivision fails to commence or continue
commercial operation after the effective date of this subdivision, the
commission shall thereafter remove and exclude from the utility
corporation's revenue requirement all amounts, costs, charges,
adjustments, or extraordinary cost of capital allowances theretofore
made, granted or provided which are attributable, directly or
indirectly, to such nuclear power plant or to such plant's failure to
commence commercial operation.
(b) The commission shall not thereafter, unless and until such plant
commences or recommences commercial operation, include in such utility's
revenue requirement any amounts, costs, charges, adjustments or
extraordinary cost of capital allowances attributable, directly or
indirectly, to such plant or to such plant's failure to commence
commerical operation.
(c) Nothing in this subdivision shall be deemed to require a refund of
the charges paid by or billed to a customer of such utility prior to a
failure to commence or continue commercial operation of such plant.
(d) For the purposes of this subdivision, the failure to commence or
continue commercial operation shall mean the abandonment of such plant
after the effective date of this subdivision; the denial, including any
denial pursuant to or as a result of any administrative or judicial
review, of a commercial operating license or other regulatory approval
necessary for the plant to become commercially used and useful in the
actual generation of electricity; the failure of the plant to become
commercially used and useful in the actual generation of electricity
within forty-two months of the issuance of the low power testing license
for such plant; or the occurrence of any event or the existence of any
circumstances (other than customary inspection and maintenance and
related repairs or refueling requirements) after the plant becomes
commercially used and useful in the actual generation of electricity
which renders the plant not commercially used and useful in the actual
generation of electricity.
25. Notwithstanding any other provision of law to the contrary,
whenever a city having a population of one million or more provides for
a deduction from gross receipts of a gas corporation or electric
corporation, pursuant to a local law authorized by the provisions of
subdivision (k) of section twelve hundred one of the tax law, the rate
or charge imposed by any such corporation within such city upon
non-residential users of electricity or gas eligible to receive a rebate
in accordance with a local law or laws adopted pursuant to article two-G
of the general city law shall be set by the commission so as to reflect
fully the decrease in tax liability attributable to such deduction.
26. Notwithstanding any other provision of law to the contrary,
whenever the gas facility costs of a gas corporation are paid or
reimbursed by the city of New York as provided in the gas facility cost
allocation act, the rates and charges of such gas corporation within
such city shall be set by the commission so as to reflect fully the
amount of such payments and reimbursements made by such city. The amount
of such payments and reimbursements shall not be reflected directly or
indirectly in any rate or charge imposed by such corporation outside
such city.

27. (a) Each electric corporation with annual gross revenues in excess
of two hundred million dollars shall offer the option of paying charges
on the basis of time of use rates for service to its residential
customers and to posts and halls owned by a not-for-profit corporation
that is a veterans' organization. Such electric corporation shall
periodically send a notice explaining the rates and informing such
customers and organizations that the rates are available.
(b) Any electric corporation which offers its customers time of use
rates shall notify those customers who elect or receive such rate
regarding the following:
(1) the hours for which such rates are available for both standard and
daylight savings time;
(2) the procedure such customers shall follow in order to have their
meter clocks reset following an interruption of service if such
resetting is necessary to restore the effective hours of the time of use
rates; and
(3) when the utility has knowledge of an outage, a statement within
sixty days of such outage that the time of use rates may not be applied
at the previously stated times until the meter clock is reset, if such
resetting is necessary.
28. No revenues foregone by an electric corporation, as a result of
subjecting certain veterans' organizations with rates or charges
applicable to domestic consumers pursuant to section seventy-six of this
article, shall be recovered from the customers of such corporation.
29. (a) Each electric corporation subject to section twenty-five-a of
this chapter shall prepare and submit a climate change vulnerability
study to the commission within eighteen months of the effective date of
this act. The commission shall provide such study to the governor and
the legislature. The climate change vulnerability study shall evaluate
the electric corporation's infrastructure, design specifications, and
procedures to better understand the corporation's vulnerability to
climate-driven risks, and shall include, but not be limited to,
adaptation measures to address vulnerabilities and any other information
deemed necessary by the commission.
(b) Within sixty days from submission of a climate change
vulnerability study to the commission, each electric corporation subject
to section twenty-five-a of this chapter shall submit a climate
resilience plan to the commission for review and approval. Each plan
shall: (i) propose storm hardening and resiliency measures for the next
ten years and twenty years, and shall explain the systematic approach
the corporation will follow to achieve the objectives of mitigating the
impacts of climate change to utility infrastructure, reducing
restoration costs and outage times associated with extreme weather
events, and enhancing reliability, as well as such other additional
objectives the commission may require consistent with ensuring increased
resiliency of utility infrastructure and overall reliability during
extreme weather events; (ii) detail how the corporation will incorporate
climate change into its planning, design, operations, and emergency
response; (iii) incorporate climate change into existing processes and
practices, manage climate change risks and build resilience; (iv)
propose adjustments, as necessary, to how the corporation plans and
designs infrastructure for the increasing impacts from climate change;
and (v) address each of the elements specified in paragraph (d) of this
subdivision and any additional elements specified by the commission. The
commission shall adopt rules to specify any additional elements that
must be included in a corporation's filing for review of climate
resilience plans.
(c) Each subject electric corporation shall contemporaneously serve
the climate resilience plan on the parties from its last rate case filed
pursuant to subdivision twelve of this section.
(d) In its review of each climate resilience plan filed pursuant to
this subdivision, which shall be separate from a corporation's rate
proceeding, the commission shall, at minimum, consider:
(i) the extent to which the plan is expected to mitigate the impacts
of climate change, reduce restoration costs and outage times associated
with extreme weather events, and enhance reliability, including whether
the plan examines areas of lower reliability performance;
(ii) the extent to which storm protection and hardening of
transmission and distribution infrastructure is feasible, reasonable, or
practical in certain areas of the corporation's service territory,
including, but not limited to, coastal areas, flood zones, and rural
areas;
(iii) the estimated costs and benefits to the corporation and its
customers of making the improvements proposed in the plan, including
considerations of equity in the plan as applied across the entire
service territory, with particular attention paid to the costs and
benefits in undergrounding transmission and distribution lines;
(iv) a schedule for implementing each of the storm hardening and
resiliency measures included in the plan;
(v) whether the plan includes major performance benchmarks that
measure the effectiveness of the implementation of the plan;
(vi) the estimated annual rate impact resulting from implementation of
the plan during the first five years addressed in the plan;
(vii) the extent to which the plan considers a multi-pronged strategy
appropriately tailored to addressing the impacts of climate change,
reducing restoration costs and outage times and enhancing infrastructure
reliability, including, but not limited to, vegetation management,
improvements to system management practices, undergrounding of
distribution and transmission lines, replacement of obsolete cables,
wires and poles, automation and circuit reconfiguration, investing in
infrastructure that supports the development of technologies that would
improve response to extreme weather events and reduce restoration costs,
and system resiliency through the deployment of distributed energy
resources, and fortifying critical facilities;
(viii) the extent to which the plan identifies opportunities for
coordination with municipalities, customer advocate groups, the
independent system operator, the energy research and development
authority, and other utility or telecommunication service providers;
and,
(ix) the recommendations from the utility climate resilience working
group established pursuant to paragraph (h) of this subdivision.
(e) No later than eleven months after a corporation files a climate
resilience plan that contains all of the elements required by this
subdivision, and after a public hearing on the plan, which shall include
a public forum at a physical location, attended by commission members or
their designees to take in written or oral comment, the commission shall
determine whether it is in the public interest to approve or modify the
plan.
(f) At least every five years after approval of a corporation's
climate resilience plan, or more frequently upon a schedule determined
to be appropriate by the commission, each corporation must file, for
commission review, an updated plan that addresses each element specified
in paragraph (b) of this subdivision. The commission shall approve,
modify, or deny each updated plan pursuant to the criteria used to
review the initial plan.
(g) The commission shall authorize each electric corporation to fully
recover in the context of rate proceedings the costs associated with
each project included in such corporation's climate resilience plan that
is approved or modified by the commission, so long as such costs were
prudently incurred. Each corporation may begin implementation of the
climate and resilience measures in accordance with the schedule
specified in its climate resilience plan once such plan is approved or
modified by the commission. For capital projects that are placed into
service and additional unrecovered expenses incurred prior to the base
rates being reset in the first rate proceeding commenced by such
corporation subsequent to the commission's approval or modification of
the climate resilience plan, the company shall recover such costs
through a "climate resiliency cost recovery" surcharge. The costs to be
recovered through such a surcharge shall be detailed in a filing to the
commission, and each corporation shall propose a method of allocating
costs to customer classes in said filing. Such costs for capital
projects in service may include an annual depreciation cost, calculated
at the corporation's approved depreciation rates and a return on the
undepreciated balance of the plant in service calculated at the
corporation's approved weighted average cost of capital. In addition,
all unrecovered expense balances, net of taxes, shall also earn carrying
charges at the corporation's approved weighted average cost of capital.
The commission may roll any unrecovered costs associated with such
surcharge into base rates when the corporation's base rates are reset.
The commission shall identify in any order approving or modifying a
corporation's rate plan the resiliency and storm hardening component of
the revenue requirement on a cost and/or percentage basis.
(h) Each corporation shall establish a utility climate resilience
working group no later than one year after the effective date of this
subdivision. Such working group shall advise and make recommendations to
the corporation and the commission on the development and implementation
of the corporation's climate resilience plan. The corporation shall, in
consultation with the department, include in the working group
representatives from municipalities, customer advocacy groups, and
energy and environmental advocacy organizations. The working group shall
meet at least twice annually.
(i) Each corporation shall provide to the county executive or the
chief elected official of a county for each county within its service
territory the most recent approved copy of the climate resilience plan
required pursuant to this subdivision. For the purposes of an electric
corporation operating within the city of New York, such corporation
shall provide the most recent approved climate resilience plan with both
the mayor's office and emergency management office of the city of New
York.
(j) The commission shall provide access to such climate resilience
plans pursuant to article six of the public officers law.
(k) Beginning December first of the year after the second full year of
implementation of a climate resilience plan and biennially thereafter,
the corporation shall file with the commission a report on the status of
its activities to comply with the plan, which report the commission
shall, after review, submit to the governor and the legislature. The
report shall include, but is not limited to, identification of all storm
protection and resiliency activities completed or planned for
completion, the actual costs and rate impacts associated with completed
activities as compared to the estimated costs and rate impacts for those
activities, the estimated costs and rate impacts associated with
activities planned for completion, and the governance, planning, and

operational activities undertaken by the corporation in furtherance of
the climate resilience plan.
(l) The commission shall promulgate any necessary rules and
regulations to implement and administer the provisions of this
subdivision.
30. Promulgate rules and regulations to direct electric or gas
corporations to develop and implement tools to monitor: (a) operational
control networks giving the electric or gas corporation the ability to
undertake the detection of unauthorized network behavior related to such
corporation's industrial control systems, as defined in subdivision
fifteen of section 1-103 of the energy law; and (b) monitor and protect
customer privacy, including but not limited to customer electric and gas
consumption data from unauthorized disclosure. On or before December
thirty-first, two thousand twenty-three and not later than five years
after such date, and every five years thereafter, the commission shall
provide a report to the governor, the temporary president of the senate,
the speaker of the assembly, the chairperson of the assembly standing
committee on energy, and the chairperson of the senate standing
committee on energy and telecommunications reviewing electric or gas
corporation compliance with this section, including, as necessary,
recommendations to the legislature if the commission determines that
additional measures are required to ensure the effective protection of
electric or gas corporation critical infrastructure.
31. Promulgate rules and regulations to direct electric or gas
corporations to require the installation of advanced metering
infrastructure that connects to the electric or gas distribution network
operated by such electric or gas corporation be permitted only so long
as access to the advanced meter infrastructure enables two-way
communication between utilities and meters through the optimal
communications network option, such as a wireless network, that is
shared by at least two meter providers operating within the United
States of America, if the commission determines that it is cost
effective and technically feasible to do so.
32. Customer electric and gas consumption data shall be considered
confidential. The commission shall have the authority to promulgate
rules and regulations to require gas or electric corporations to take
necessary measures to protect such data from unauthorized or unconsented
disclosure.

Structure New York Laws