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KHS S06394'26_SB0890_INTR_1 6acmhi
SENATE BILL NO. 890
A bill to amend 1939 PA 3, entitled
"An act to provide for the regulation and control of public and
certain private utilities and other services affected with a public
interest within this state; to provide for alternative energy
suppliers and certain providers of electric vehicle charging
services; to provide for licensing; to include municipally owned
utilities and other providers of energy under certain provisions of
this act; to create a public service commission and to prescribe
and define its powers and duties; to abolish the Michigan public
utilities commission and to confer the powers and duties vested by
law on the public service commission; to provide for the powers and
duties of certain state governmental officers and entities; to
provide for the continuance, transfer, and completion of certain
matters and proceedings; to abolish automatic adjustment clauses;
to prohibit certain rate increases without notice and hearing; to
March 26, 2026, Introduced by Senators IRWIN, MCBROOM, MOSS, POLEHANKI,
CAVANAGH, SANTANA, KLINEFELT, GEISS, SHINK, CHANG and MCMORROW and
referred to Committee on Government Operations.
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qualify residential energy conservation programs permitted under
state law for certain federal exemption; to create a fund; to
encourage the utilization of resource recovery facilities; to
prohibit certain acts and practices of providers of energy; to
allow for the securitization of stranded costs; to reduce rates; to
provide for appeals; to provide appropriations; to declare the
effect and purpose of this act; to prescribe remedies and
penalties; and to repeal acts and parts of acts,"
by amending section 10p (MCL 460.10p), as amended by 2016 PA 341.
THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF MICHIGAN ENACT:
Sec. 10p. (1) Each electric utility operating in this state 1
shall establish an industry worker transition program that, in 2
consultation with employees or applicable collective bargaining 3
representatives, provides skills upgrades, apprenticeship and 4
training programs, voluntary separation packages consistent with 5
reasonable business practices, and job banks to coordinate and 6
assist placement of employees into comparable employment at no less 7
than the wage rates and substantially equivalent fringe benefits 8
received before the transition. 9
(2) The costs resulting from subsection (1) include audited 10
and verified employee-related restructuring costs that are incurred 11
as a result of 2000 PA 141 or as a result of prior commission 12
restructuring orders, including employee severance costs, employee 13
retraining programs, early retirement programs, outplacement 14
programs, and similar costs and programs, that have been approved 15
and found to be prudently incurred by the commission. 16
(3) In the event of a sale, purchase, or any other transfer of 17
ownership of 1 or more Michigan divisions or business units, or 18
generating stations or generating units, of an electric utility, to 19
either a third party or a utility subsidiary, the electric 20
utility's contract and agreements with the acquiring entity or 21
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persons shall must require all of the following for a period of at 1
least 30 months: 2
(a) That the acquiring entity or persons hire a sufficient 3
number of nonsupervisory employees to safely and reliably operate 4
and maintain the station, division, or unit by making offers of 5
employment to the nonsupervisory workforce of the electric 6
utility's division, business unit, generating station, or 7
generating unit. 8
(b) That the acquiring entity or persons not employ 9
nonsupervisory employees from outside the electric utility's 10
workforce unless offers of employment have been made to all 11
qualified nonsupervisory employees of the acquired business unit or 12
facility. 13
(c) That the acquiring entity or persons have a dispute 14
resolution mechanism culminating in a final and binding decision by 15
a neutral third party for resolving employee complaints or disputes 16
over wages, fringe benefits, and working conditions. 17
(d) That the acquiring entity or persons offer employment at 18
no less than the wage rates and substantially equivalent fringe 19
benefits and terms and conditions of employment that are in effect 20
at the time of transfer of ownership of the division, business 21
unit, generating station, or generating unit. The wage rates and 22
substantially equivalent fringe benefits and terms and conditions 23
of employment shall must continue for at least 30 months from after 24
the time of the transfer of ownership unless the employees, or 25
where applicable collective bargaining representative, and the new 26
employer mutually agree to different terms and conditions of 27
employment within that 30-month period. 28
(4) The electric utility shall offer a transition plan to 29
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those employees who are not offered jobs by the entity because the 1
entity has a need for fewer workers. If there is litigation 2
concerning the sale, or other transfer of ownership of the electric 3
utility's divisions, business units, generating stations, or 4
generating units, the 30-month period under subsection (3) begins 5
on the date the acquiring entity or persons take control or 6
management of the divisions, business units, generating stations, 7
or generating units of the electric utility. 8
(5) The commission shall adopt generally applicable service 9
quality and reliability standards for the transmission, generation, 10
and distribution systems of electric utilities and other entities 11
subject to its jurisdiction, including, but not limited to, 12
standards for service outages, distribution facility upgrades, 13
repairs and maintenance, telephone service, billing service, 14
operational reliability, and public and worker safety. In setting 15
service quality and reliability standards, the commission shall 16
consider safety, costs, local geography and weather, applicable 17
codes, national electric industry practices, sound engineering 18
judgment, and experience. The commission shall also include 19
provisions to upgrade the service quality of distribution circuits 20
that historically have experienced significantly below-average 21
performance in relationship to similar distribution circuits. The 22
standards for billing service adopted under this section must do 23
all of the following: 24
(a) Prohibit utilities from charging residential customers 25
paying the customer's utility bill with a credit card or debit card 26
more than what it would cost the utility in credit card or debit 27
card fees. 28
(b) Require the utility to provide at least 1 cost-free 29
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payment method that does not require the residential customer to 1
pay the bill at a physical location. 2
(6) Annually, each jurisdictional utility or entity shall file 3
its report with the commission detailing actions to be taken to 4
comply with the service quality and reliability standards during 5
the next calendar year and its performance in relation to the 6
service quality and reliability standards during the prior calendar 7
year. The annual reports shall must contain that data as required 8
by the commission, including the estimated cost of achieving 9
improvements in the jurisdictional utility's or entity's 10
performance with respect to the service quality and reliability 11
standards. 12
(7) The commission shall analyze the data to determine whether 13
the jurisdictional entities are properly operating and maintaining 14
their systems and take corrective action if needed. 15
(8) By December 31, 2009, the commission shall review its 16
existing rules under this section and amend the rules, if needed, 17
under the administrative procedures act of 1969, 1969 PA 306, MCL 18
24.201 to 24.328, to implement performance standards for generation 19
facilities and for distribution facilities to protect end-use 20
customers from power quality disturbances. 21
(9) Any standards or rules developed under this section shall 22
must be designed to do the following, as applicable: 23
(a) Establish different requirements for each customer class, 24
whenever those different requirements are appropriate to carry out 25
the provisions of this section, and to reflect different load and 26
service characteristics of each customer class. 27
(b) Consider the availability and associated cost of necessary 28
equipment and labor required to maintain or upgrade distribution 29
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and generating facilities. 1
(c) Ensure that the most cost-effective means of addressing 2
power quality disturbances are promoted for each utility, including 3
consideration of the installation of equipment or adoption of 4
operating practices at the end-user's location. 5
(d) Take into account the extent to which the benefits 6
associated with achieving a specified standard or improvement are 7
offset by the incremental capital, fuel, and operation and 8
maintenance expenses associated with meeting the specified standard 9
or improvement. 10
(e) Carefully consider the time frame for achieving a 11
specified standard, taking into account the time required to 12
implement needed investments or modify operating practices. 13
(10) The commission shall also create benchmarks for 14
individual jurisdictional entities within their rate-making process 15
in order to accomplish the goals of this section to alleviate end-16
use customer power quality disturbances and promote power plant 17
generating cost efficiency. 18
(11) The commission shall establish a method for gathering 19
data from the industrial customer class to assist in monitoring 20
power quality and reliability standards related to service 21
characteristics of the industrial customer class. 22
(12) The commission may levy financial incentives and 23
penalties upon on any jurisdictional entity which that exceeds or 24
fails to meet the service quality and reliability standards. 25
(13) As used in this section, "jurisdictional utility" or 26
"jurisdictional entity" means a jurisdictional regulated utility as 27
that term is defined in section 6q. 28