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An Act To Provide Relief to Maine Ratepayers
Be it enacted by the People of the State of Maine as follows:
Sec. 1.  35-A MRSA §3212, sub-§2, ¶E  is enacted to read:
 
E.  If the commission does not receive a bid to provide standard offer service for less than 10¢ per kilowatt hour for a class of customer in a transmission and distribution utility's service territory, the commission, for that class of customer in the transmission and distribution utility's service territory, shall reject all the bids received and, notwithstanding section 3210, suspend the renewable portfolio standard under that section and issue a new request for proposals. For a bid accepted by the commission following the new request for proposals that is less than 10¢ per kilowatt hour for a class of customer in a transmission and distribution utility's service territory, the suspension of the renewable portfolio standards remains in effect for the duration of that standard offer period.
 
SUMMARY
This bill requires the Public Utilities Commission to reject all bids to provide standard offer service for a customer class in a transmission and distribution utility's service territory if none of the bids for that customer class are less than 10¢ per kilowatt hour. When this occurs, the commission is required to suspend the portfolio requirements for renewable capacity resources and issue a new request for proposals for each customer class that did not obtain a bid less than 10¢ per kilowatt hour. The suspension of the portfolio requirements remains in effect for the duration of the new standard offer period.