Bill Summary: SB 888

• Establishes civil penalties up to $40,000 for violations of call-before-you-dig requirements and related regulations, with reduced penalties of up to $1,000 for marking failures by utilities that cause no damage or injury and involve no gross negligence.

• Requires civil penalties for marking violations to be paid by the entity that received the notice of violation, and allows the authority to direct recovery of any penalties the entity receives from third parties.

• Extends the deadline for filing a hearing application from the standard timeframe to 30 days after receiving a notice of violation.

• Replaces references to "private power producers" throughout Connecticut statutes with "Qualifying Facilities" as defined under the federal Public Utilities Regulatory Policies Act (18 CFR 292.101(b)(1)).

• Requires electric distribution companies to file three tariffs with the Public Utilities Regulatory Authority for purchasing energy and capacity from qualifying facilities, allowing qualifying facilities to choose compensation based on either real-time avoided costs or forecasted avoided costs.