NY A10987

Gas and electric corporations in New York must dedicate 40 percent of their operating budget annually beginning in 2021 to improve power outage response and address storm-related damage.

Required expenditures must be used for infrastructure hardening, storm resilience, improving outage response time and effectiveness, removing power lines from trees, and removing trees and limbs near power lines.

Gas and electric corporations must file compliance reports with the Public Service Commission on April 1, 2021, and quarterly thereafter (July 1, October 1, January 1, and April 1) documenting their spending under this requirement.

Any rate increase application submitted to the Commission must include documentation proving the corporation's compliance with the 40 percent budget expenditure mandate.

The act takes effect immediately upon enactment.