HB3149 98TH GENERAL ASSEMBLY

LRB098 10877 JLS 41379 b

98TH GENERAL ASSEMBLY
State of Illinois
2013 and 2014
HB3149

Introduced , by Rep. Brandon W. Phelps

SYNOPSIS AS INTRODUCED:

220 ILCS 5/5-104

from Ch. 111 2/3, par. 5-104

Amends the Public Utilities Act. Provides that the Commerce Commission may require gas utilities to keep accounts that reflect depreciation and other specified information. Effective immediately.

FISCAL NOTE ACT MAY APPLY

A BILL FOR

AN ACT concerning public utilities.

Be it enacted by the People of the State of Illinois, represented in the General Assembly:

Section 5. The Public Utilities Act is amended by changing Section 5-104 as follows:

(220 ILCS 5/5-104) (from Ch. 111 2/3, par. 5-104)

Sec. 5-104. Depreciation accounts.

(a) The Commission shall have power, after hearing, to require any or all public utilities, except electric public utilities and gas public utilities, to keep such accounts as will adequately reflect depreciation, obsolescence and the progress of the arts. The Commission may, from time to time, ascertain and determine and by order fix the proper and adequate rate of depreciation of the several classes of property for each public utility; and each public utility shall conform its depreciation accounts to the rates so ascertained, determined and fixed.

(b) The Commission shall have the power, after hearing, to require any or all electric public utilities and gas public utilities to keep such accounts as will adequately reflect depreciation, obsolescence, and the progress of the arts. The Commission may, from time to time, ascertain and determine and by order fix the proper and adequate rate of depreciation of the several classes of property for each electric public utility and gas public utility; and each electric public utility and gas public utility shall thereafter, absent further order of the Commission, conform its depreciation accounts to the rates so ascertained, determined and fixed until at least the end of the first full calendar year following the date of such determination.

(c) An electric public utility and a gas public utility may from time to time alter the annual rates of depreciation, which for purposes of this subsection (c) and subsection (d) shall include amortization, that it applies to its several classes of assets so long as the rates are consistent with generally accepted accounting principles. An The electric public utility and a gas public utility shall file a statement with the Commission which shall set forth the new rates of depreciation and which shall contain a certification by an independent certified public accountant that the new rates of depreciation are consistent with generally accepted accounting principles. Upon the filing of such statement, the new rates of depreciation shall be deemed to be approved by the Commission as the rates of depreciation to be applied thereafter by the public utility as though an order had been entered pursuant to subsection (b).

(d) In any proceeding conducted pursuant to Section 9-201 or 9-202 to set an electric public utility's or gas public utility's rates for service, the Commission may determine not to use, in determining the depreciation expense component of the public utility's rates for service, the rates of depreciation established pursuant to subsection (c), if the Commission in that proceeding finds based on the record that different rates of depreciation are required to adequately reflect depreciation, obsolescence and the progress of the arts, and fixes by order and uses for purposes of that proceeding new rates of depreciation to be thereafter employed by the electric public utility or gas public utility until the end of the first full calendar year following the date of the determination and thereafter until altered in accordance with subsection (b) or (c) of this Section.

(e) For purposes of this Section, "gas public utility" means a natural gas utility serving at least 1,600,000 customers as of January 1, 2013.

The changes made to this Section by this amendatory Act of the 98th General Assembly apply with respect to new rates of depreciation that are filed with the Commission pursuant to subsection (c) on or after January 1, 2013 on the date the statement of new rates of depreciation are certified by an independent certified public accountant.

(Source: P.A. 90-561, eff. 12-16-97.)

Section 99. Effective date. This Act takes effect upon becoming law.