Ratepayer Protection Act

This legislation, known as the "Ratepayer Protection Act," amends the Public Utility Regulatory Policies Act of 1978 to introduce a new federal standard concerning electric service for large-load customers. Its primary goal is to ensure that these customers, defined as non-residential consumers with a peak electric demand of 100 megawatts or more, are solely responsible for the costs associated with infrastructure upgrades necessitated by their energy demands. Specifically, the bill mandates that electric utilities design rates to recover the full, incremental cost of any generation, transmission, or distribution upgrades required to serve a large-load customer. This cost recovery obligation persists even if the customer later terminates their service agreement. Furthermore, utilities are required to obtain financial assurances or contributions from large-load customers to cover these upgrade costs *before* any construction or development begins. State regulatory authorities and nonregulated electric utilities are obligated to commence consideration of this new standard within one year of the bill's enactment and complete their determination within two years. However, states that have already implemented a comparable standard, conducted a relevant proceeding, or had their legislature vote on such a standard for an electric utility are exempt from these new consideration requirements.