HB 624 Summary

• Storm Recovery Bond Financing: Permits electric utilities to issue storm recovery bonds to finance costs from storms (tropical storms, hurricanes, tornadoes, ice storms, floods, earthquakes, etc.), including labor, corporate overhead, and infrastructure repair costs, with financing costs recovered through nonbypassable charges to all customers.

• Financing Order Process: Authorizes the NC Utilities Commission to issue financing orders within 120 days that create "storm recovery property" and allow utilities to impose storm recovery charges separate from base rates, with automatic annual adjustments via formula-based true-up mechanism.

• Bond Securitization Provisions: Establishes that storm recovery property is an irrevocable intangible property right that can be sold or transferred to assignees, with security interests perfected through financing statements filed with the Secretary of State; bonds are nonrecourse to utility assets.

• Multiyear Rate Plans and Return Banding: Authorizes the Commission to approve alternative rate-making mechanisms including multiyear rate plans (allowing periodic base rate changes without full proceedings) and banding of authorized returns (setting midpoint returns with high/low ranges), effective for up to five years.

• Commission Limitations: Prohibits the Commission from amending financing orders after bond issuance, treating storm recovery charges as utility revenue for regulatory purposes, or conditioning utility securities approval based on storm bond availability.