HB 2291

This bill authorizes investor-owned electric utilities in Virginia to petition the State Corporation Commission for a rate adjustment clause that would allow them to recover costs associated with upgrades, replacements, or other modifications needed to extend the operating licenses or operational life of nuclear generation facilities. The legislation permits utilities to defer these costs on their books until the Commission approves the rate adjustment, though it prohibits recovery of certain nuclear facility extension costs through rate adjustment clauses before January 1, 2020. Essentially, this bill creates a mechanism for utilities to pass along to ratepayers the costs of maintaining and extending the life of aging nuclear power plants, while establishing some temporal limitations and ensuring that costs already built into existing rates as of January 1, 2017, cannot be double-recovered through the new rate adjustment clause.