Senate Bill sb0494c1

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    Florida Senate - 2005                            CS for SB 494

    By the Committee on Community Affairs; and Senator Bennett





    578-1935-05

  1                      A bill to be entitled

  2         An act relating to renewable energy; creating

  3         s. 366.91, F.S.; providing legislative

  4         findings; providing definitions; requiring

  5         public utilities, municipal utilities, and

  6         rural electric cooperatives to offer a purchase

  7         contract to producers of renewable energy;

  8         providing requirements for such contracts;

  9         requiring that a producer pay the costs for

10         interconnection; amending s. 366.11, F.S.;

11         specifying that requirements for the purchase

12         of renewable energy apply to municipal

13         utilities; amending s. 403.7061, F.S.; revising

14         a permit requirement for a waste-to-energy

15         facility; encouraging specified applicants for

16         a landfill permit to consider construction of a

17         waste-to-energy facility; providing an

18         effective date.

19  

20  Be It Enacted by the Legislature of the State of Florida:

21  

22         Section 1.  Section 366.91, Florida Statutes, is

23  created to read:

24         366.91  Renewable energy.--

25         (1)  The Legislature finds that it is in the public

26  interest to promote the development of renewable energy

27  resources in this state. Renewable energy resources have the

28  potential to help diversify fuel types to meet Florida's

29  growing dependency on natural gas for electric production,

30  minimize the volatility of fuel costs, encourage investment

31  

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    Florida Senate - 2005                            CS for SB 494
    578-1935-05




 1  within the state, improve environmental conditions, and make

 2  Florida a leader in new and innovative technologies.

 3         (2)  As used in this section, the term:

 4         (a)  "Biomass" means a power source composed of

 5  combustible residues or gases that are derived from organic

 6  matter drawn from sources other than fossil fuels, which

 7  sources are available on a renewable basis.  The term

 8  includes, but is not limited to, a power source from

 9  forest-products manufacturing; agricultural and orchard crops;

10  waste products from livestock operations, poultry operations,

11  or food processing; urban wood waste; municipal solid waste;

12  municipal liquid waste treatment operations; or landfill gas.

13         (b)  "Renewable energy" means electrical energy

14  produced from a method that uses one or more of the following

15  fuels or energy sources: hydrogen produced from sources other

16  than fossil fuels, biomass, solar energy, geothermal energy,

17  wind energy, ocean energy, and hydroelectric power.

18         (3)  On or before January 1, 2006, each public utility

19  must continuously offer a purchase contract to producers of

20  renewable energy containing payment provisions for energy and

21  capacity which are based upon the utility's full avoided

22  costs, as defined in s. 366.051; however, capacity payments

23  are not required if, due to the operational characteristics of

24  the renewable energy generator or the anticipated peak and

25  off-peak availability and capacity factor of the utility's

26  avoided unit, the producer is unlikely to provide any capacity

27  value to the utility or the electric grid during the contract

28  term. Each contract must provide a contract term of at least

29  10 years. Prudent and reasonable costs associated with a

30  renewable energy contract shall be recovered from the

31  ratepayers of the contracting utility, without differentiation

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    Florida Senate - 2005                            CS for SB 494
    578-1935-05




 1  among customer classes, through the appropriate cost-recovery

 2  clause mechanism administered by the commission.

 3         (4)  On or before January 1, 2006, each municipal

 4  electric utility and rural electric cooperative whose annual

 5  sales, as of July 1, 1993, to retail customers were greater

 6  than 2,000 gigawatt hours must continuously offer a purchase

 7  contract to producers of renewable energy containing payment

 8  provisions for energy and capacity which are based upon the

 9  utility's or cooperative's full avoided costs, as determined

10  by the governing body of the municipal utility or cooperative;

11  however, capacity payments are not required if, due to the

12  operational characteristics of the renewable energy generator

13  or the anticipated peak and off-peak availability and capacity

14  factor of the utility's avoided unit, the producer is unlikely

15  to provide any capacity value to the utility or the electric

16  grid during the contract term. Each contract must provide a

17  contract term of at least 10 years.

18         (5)  A contracting producer of renewable energy must

19  pay the actual costs of its interconnection with the

20  transmission grid or distribution system.

21         Section 2.  Subsection (1) of section 366.11, Florida

22  Statutes, is amended to read:

23         366.11  Certain exemptions.--

24         (1)  No provision of this chapter shall apply in any

25  manner, other than as specified in ss. 366.04, 366.05(7) and

26  (8), 366.051, 366.055, 366.093, 366.095, 366.14, and

27  366.80-366.85, and 366.91, to utilities owned and operated by

28  municipalities, whether within or without any municipality, or

29  by cooperatives organized and existing under the Rural

30  Electric Cooperative Law of the state, or to the sale of

31  electricity, manufactured gas, or natural gas at wholesale by

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    Florida Senate - 2005                            CS for SB 494
    578-1935-05




 1  any public utility to, and the purchase by, any municipality

 2  or cooperative under and pursuant to any contracts now in

 3  effect or which may be entered into in the future, when such

 4  municipality or cooperative is engaged in the sale and

 5  distribution of electricity or manufactured or natural gas, or

 6  to the rates provided for in such contracts.

 7         Section 3.  Subsection (3) of section 403.7061, Florida

 8  Statutes, is amended to read:

 9         403.7061  Requirements for review of new

10  waste-to-energy facility capacity by the Department of

11  Environmental Protection.--

12         (3)  An applicant must provide reasonable assurance

13  that the construction of a new waste-to-energy facility or the

14  expansion of an existing waste-to-energy facility will comply

15  with the following subsections:

16         (a)  The facility is a necessary part of the local

17  government's integrated solid waste management program in the

18  jurisdiction where the facility is located and cannot be

19  avoided through feasible and practical efforts to use

20  recycling or waste reduction.

21         (b)  The use of capacity at existing waste-to-energy

22  facilities within reasonable transportation distance of the

23  proposed facility must have been evaluated and found not to be

24  economically feasible when compared to the use of the proposed

25  facility for the expected life of the proposed facility. This

26  paragraph does not apply to:

27         1.  Applications to build or expand waste-to-energy

28  facilities received by the department before March 1, 1993, or

29  amendments to such applications that do not increase

30  combustion capacity beyond that requested as of March 1, 1993;

31  or

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    Florida Senate - 2005                            CS for SB 494
    578-1935-05




 1         2.  Any modification to waste-to-energy facility

 2  construction or operating permits or certifications or

 3  conditions thereto, including certifications under ss.

 4  403.501-403.518, that do not increase combustion capacity

 5  above that amount applied for before March 1, 1993.

 6         (c)  The county in which the facility is located has

 7  implemented and maintains a solid waste management and

 8  recycling program that is designed to The county in which the

 9  facility is located will achieve the 30-percent waste

10  reduction goal set forth in s. 403.706(4) by the time the

11  facility begins operation. For the purposes of this section,

12  the provisions of s. 403.706(4)(c) for counties with

13  populations of 100,000 75,000 or less do not apply.

14         (d)  The local government in which the facility is

15  located has implemented a mulching, composting, or other waste

16  reduction program for yard trash.

17         (e)  The local governments served by the facility will

18  have implemented or participated in a separation program

19  designed to remove small-quantity generator and household

20  hazardous waste, mercury containing devices, and

21  mercuric-oxide batteries from the waste stream prior to

22  incineration, by the time the facility begins operation.

23         (f)  The local government in which the facility is

24  located has implemented a program to procure products or

25  materials with recycled content, pursuant to s. 403.7065.

26         (g)  A program will exist in the local government in

27  which the facility is located for collecting and recycling

28  recovered material from the institutional, commercial, and

29  industrial sectors by the time the facility begins operation.

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    Florida Senate - 2005                            CS for SB 494
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 1         (h)  The facility will be in compliance with applicable

 2  local ordinances and with the approved state and local

 3  comprehensive plans required by chapter 163.

 4         (i)  The facility is in substantial compliance with its

 5  permit, conditions of certification, and any agreements or

 6  orders resulting from environmental enforcement actions by

 7  state agencies.

 8         (4)  For the purposes of this section, the term

 9  "waste-to-energy facility" means a facility that uses an

10  enclosed device using controlled combustion to thermally break

11  down solid, liquid, or gaseous combustible solid waste to an

12  ash residue that contains little or no combustible material

13  and that produces electricity, steam, or other energy as a

14  result. The term does not include facilities that primarily

15  burn fuels other than solid waste even if such facilities also

16  burn some solid waste as a fuel supplement. The term also does

17  not include facilities that burn vegetative, agricultural, or

18  silvicultural wastes, bagasse, clean dry wood, methane or

19  other landfill gas, wood fuel derived from construction or

20  demolition debris, or waste tires, alone or in combination

21  with fossil fuels.

22         Section 4.  Requirements relating to solid waste

23  disposal facility permitting.--Local government applicants for

24  a permit to construct or expand a Class I landfill are

25  encouraged to consider construction of a waste-to-energy

26  facility as an alternative to additional landfill space.

27         Section 5.  This act shall take effect October 1, 2005.

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    Florida Senate - 2005                            CS for SB 494
    578-1935-05




 1          STATEMENT OF SUBSTANTIAL CHANGES CONTAINED IN
                       COMMITTEE SUBSTITUTE FOR
 2                         Senate Bill 494

 3                                 

 4  The Committee substitute (CS) revises the definition of
    "renewable energy" in the CS. It specifies that capacity
 5  payments are not required under certain circumstances. Also,
    the CS requires a county with a population of 100,000 or less
 6  to have a program designed to achieve the waste reduction goal
    in s. 403.706(4), F.S., rather than just providing the
 7  opportunity to recycle, if a WTE facility is build within its
    boundaries.
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