Ratepayer Fairness Act

This bill amends the Public Utility Regulatory Policies Act of 1978 to require a state regulatory authority and a nonregulated electric utility, to the extent that they allow electric utility rates to include charges that subsidize customer-side technology, to consider whether that subsidy would:

• result in benefits predominately enjoyed by only the users of the customer-side technology;
• shift costs of a customer-side technology to electricity consumers who do not use it, particularly in cases in which disparate economic or resource conditions exist among the electricity consumers cross-subsidizing the customer-side technology;
• negatively affect resource utilization, fuel diversity, grid reliability, or grid security;
• give any unfair competitive advantage to market the customer-side technology, including an analysis of whether a state regulatory authority has uncovered fraudulent customer-side technology marketing practices; and
• be necessary to fulfill an obligation to serve electric consumers.

The bill sets deadlines within which the regulatory authority or electric utility must set a hearing date to consider and subsequently determine the subsidization of customer-side technology.