A. In the event an unregulated utility opts for financing pursuant to this act, the unregulated utility shall submit to the Oklahoma Development Finance Authority an application for determination and approval of qualified costs as defined in this act. The Authority, with assistance from the Public Utility Division of the Oklahoma Corporation Commission pursuant to subsection C of this section, shall determine the qualified costs an unregulated utility actually and lawfully incurred and that were directly related to the extreme weather experienced in February 2021.
B. The Authority may develop procedures to receive and review applications for the establishment of qualified costs; provided, the application shall require but not be limited to:
1. The amount of extreme purchase costs and extraordinary costs requested for recovery;
2. Whether the unregulated utility is requesting a loan for all or a portion of the extreme purchase costs and extraordinary costs eligible for recovery;
3. Estimated amounts of cost savings from or demonstration of how utility bill impact to customers would be mitigated by receiving a loan for the eligible extreme purchase costs and extraordinary costs, in comparison with traditional financing or any other utility recovery methods; and
4. Any other information or documentation required by the Authority to effectuate this act.
After the Authority receives an application pursuant to subsection A of this section, a copy of the application shall be transmitted to the Commission for administrative review pursuant to subsection C of this section.
C. 1. The Commission is hereby authorized, for the limited purposes of this act, to receive an application by an unregulated utility for administrative review of extreme purchase costs and extraordinary costs to be recovered through the issuance of loans by the Authority. In determining the amount of costs to be recovered, the Commission shall audit these amounts requested to ensure they meet the definition of extreme purchase costs and extraordinary costs, were actually incurred, were paid or are payable and would be recovered from customers in the normal course of business.
2. Once the Commission has completed administrative review of the costs to be recovered, a written copy of the findings of the review shall be transmitted to the Authority.
D. After receiving the findings of the administrative review conducted by the Corporation Commission pursuant to subsection C of this section, the Authority shall issue a written approval or disapproval of the application to the Authority quantifying the approved or disapproved qualified costs. A copy of the written approval or disapproval of the application shall be provided to the Governor, the President Pro Tempore of the Senate and the Speaker of the House of Representatives on the same date the approval or disapproval is issued by the Authority.
E. In the event the Authority rejects an application for failure to provide sufficient information to make a determination of qualified costs, it shall provide the reasons for rejection to the unregulated utility and the unregulated utility may then modify and resubmit the application to the Authority with the necessary documents and information. The Authority shall then transmit a copy of the resubmitted application to the Commission for administrative review pursuant to subsection C of this section.
Added by Laws 2021, c. 203, § 5, emerg. eff. April 23, 2021.