Bill > HB2457

This bill exempts certain new power plants from the requirement to obtain a certificate of environmental compatibility, which is a permit ensuring environmental suitability for power plant construction. Specifically, a utility, after giving 30 days' notice and holding a public meeting in the affected county, can build a new plant without this certificate if it is located alongside an "extra high load factor customer" (meaning a customer with very high and consistent energy usage, defined by the commission based on energy demand measured in megawatts or megawatt hours) and that customer has already secured necessary zoning approvals. The bill also mandates that the commission, which is the regulatory body overseeing utilities, create rules to define what "colocated with" means in terms of physical distance or the nature of the electrical connection between the plant and the customer, and to define "extra high load factor customer" without unfairly discriminating against different industries or users, as long as their energy demand characteristics are considered.