SENATE FILE _____

BY  (PROPOSED COMMITTEE ON COMMERCE BILL BY CHAIRPERSON DANDEKAR)

A BILL FOR

An Act expanding the definition of alternate energy production facility for purposes of compliance with electric utility rate regulation requirements.
BE IT ENACTED BY THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE STATE OF IOWA:

   Section 1.  Section 476.42, subsection 1, paragraph a, Code 2011, is amended to read as follows:
   a.  A solar, wind turbine, waste management, resource recovery, refuse-derived fuel, agricultural crops or residues, or woodburning facility.  For purposes of this definition, “waste management” includes but is not limited to a facility producing synthetic gas created by a plasma gasification of biogenic material such as municipal solid waste or animal waste. For purposes of this definition, “plasma gasification” means the thermal disintegration of carbonaceous material into fragments of compounds in an oxygen-starved environment.
EXPLANATION
   This bill expands the definition of an “alternate energy production facility” for purposes of compliance with electric utility rate regulation requirements.
   Provisions contained in Code sections 476.43 and 476.44 require electric utilities to either own alternate energy production facilities or small hydro facilities located in Iowa or enter into long-term contracts to purchase or wheel electricity from such facilities, or provide for the availability of supplemental or backup power to such facilities on a nondiscriminatory basis and at just and reasonable rates.
   Currently, the applicable definition of “alternate energy production facility” in Code section 476.42 references solar, wind turbine, waste management, resource recovery, refuse-derived fuel, agricultural crops or residues, or woodburning facilities. The bill specifies that for purposes of this definition, “waste management” includes but is not limited to a facility producing synthetic gas created by a plasma gasification of biogenic material such as municipal solid waste or animal waste, and that “plasma gasification” means the thermal disintegration of carbonaceous material into fragments of compounds in an oxygen-starved environment.