69-8-701. Consumer electricity support program. (1) There is a consumer electricity support program. The purpose of the program is to provide an affordable and reliable electricity supply to customers of the default supplier from July 1, 2002, until June 30, 2007. The consumer electricity support program consists of financial support or the assignment and subsequent disposition of electricity supply.
     (2) There is a consumer electricity support account in the state special revenue fund. The account must be used for the deposit of any of the financial sources dedicated to the account. Distributions from the account must be in accordance with rules adopted by the department of administration for the program. Financial sources for funding the account may include:
     (a) allocations from the state as provided by law; and
     (b) other financial sources as identified in rules adopted by the department of administration.
     (3) Electricity supply made available for the program must be either disposed of, with the resulting revenue deposited to the consumer electricity support account, or assigned to the distribution services provider to serve default supply customers. The electricity supply providers must be reimbursed for electricity supply contributed and used in accordance with rules adopted by the department of administration for this program. Electricity supply sources include:
     (a) electricity provided by electricity suppliers;
     (b) electricity available in the electrical energy pool established in 69-8-110;
     (c) government power authorities;
     (d) qualifying facility electricity supply as provided by law; and
     (e) any other source of electricity supply as identified in rules adopted by the department of administration.
     (4) The consumer electricity support program must be administered by the department of administration. The department shall adopt rules necessary to operate the program and to allocate the consumer electricity support resources beginning July 1, 2002. The rules must provide for the equitable distribution of program resources for default supply customers and for the reimbursement of the electricity supply providers. The rules must balance the short-term considerations of cost mitigation with the longer-term interests of encouraging customer demand response by establishing accurate electricity supply price signals. The department shall implement the consumer electricity support program in coordination with the default supplier.
     (5) The department of administration may recover the costs of administering the program from the consumer electricity support account.

     History: En. Sec. 18, Ch. 577, L. 2001.