NAC704.9484. Critical facility: Procedure and purpose for designation; financial incentives.

     1. The Commission may, upon the request of a utility or an intervening party pursuant to subsection 2 or upon its own motion, make a determination as to whether to designate a facility of the utility as a critical facility. Such a determination may be made in conjunction with an order issued by the Commission pursuant to subsection 1 of NAC 704.9494 or in another proceeding on the matter.

     2. A utility and any party granted intervener status may request that the Commission designate a facility of the utility as a critical facility for the purpose of:

     (a) Protecting reliability;

     (b) Promoting diversity of supply and demand side sources;

     (c) Developing renewable energy resources;

     (d) Fulfilling specific statutory mandates;

     (e) Promoting retail price stability; or

     (f) Any combination of paragraphs (a) to (e), inclusive.

Ê Such a request must be accompanied by supporting analysis and documentation.

     3. If the Commission designates a facility as a critical facility, the utility may request that incentives associated with that facility be included in rates in an application to change general rates filed pursuant to NAC 703.2201 to 703.2481, inclusive. The incentives may include, without limitation:

     (a) Earning an enhanced return on equity on the designated critical facility over the life of the facility;

     (b) The inclusion in the rates of construction work in progress associated with the designated facility; and

     (c) Designating costs incurred to construct the designated critical facility in a regulatory asset account, to be recorded as a subaccount to Account 182.3 (Other Regulatory Assets). The utility may recover the regulatory asset pursuant to subsection 3 of NAC 704.9523.

     (Added to NAC by Pub. Utilities Comm’n by R004-04, eff. 5-25-2004)