(a) Reasonable expenditures by transmission owners that are electrical corporations to plan, design, and engineer reconfiguration, replacement, or expansion of transmission facilities are in the public interest and are deemed prudent if made for the purpose of facilitating competition in electric generation markets, ensuring open access and comparable service, or maintaining or enhancing reliability, whether or not these expenditures are for transmission facilities that become operational.
(b) The commission and the Electricity Oversight Board shall jointly facilitate the efforts of the state’s transmission owning electrical corporations to obtain authorization from the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission to recover reasonable expenditures made for the purposes stated in subdivision (a).
(c) Nothing in this section alters or affects the recovery of the reasonable costs of other electric facilities in rates pursuant to the commission’s existing ratemaking authority under this code or pursuant to the Federal Power Act (41 Stat. 1063; 16 U.S.C. Secs. 791a, et seq.). The commission may periodically review and adjust depreciation schedules and rates authorized for an electric plant that is under the jurisdiction of the commission and owned by an electrical corporation and periodically review and adjust depreciation schedules and rates authorized for a gas plant that is under the jurisdiction of the commission and owned by a gas corporation, consistent with this code.
(Added by renumbering Section 454.1 (as added by Stats. 2000, Ch. 1040) by Stats. 2004, Ch. 694, Sec. 10. Effective January 1, 2005.)