A bill to amend the Public Utility Regulatory Policies Act of 1978 to provide for the consideration by State regulatory authorities and nonregulated electric utilities of whether subsidies should be provided for the deployment, construction, maintenance, or operation of a customer-side technology.

Ratepayer Fairness Act This bill amends the Public Utility Regulatory Policies Act of 1978 to require a state regulatory authority and a nonregulated electric utility, to the extent that they allow electric utility rates to include charges that subsidize customer-side technology, to consider whether that subsidy would: result in benefits predominately enjoyed by only the users of the customer-side technology; shift costs of a customer-side technology to electricity consumers who do not use it, particularly in cases in which disparate economic or resource conditions exist among the electricity consumers cross-subsidizing the customer-side technology; negatively affect resource utilization, fuel diversity, grid reliability, or grid security; give any unfair competitive advantage to market the customer-side technology, including an analysis of whether a state regulatory authority has uncovered fraudulent customer-side technology marketing practices; and be necessary to fulfill an obligation to serve electric consumers. The bill sets deadlines within which the regulatory authority or electric utility must set a hearing date to consider and subsequently determine the subsidization of customer-side technology.