Title: POWER Act
Policy area: Energy

Summary:
Power Outage for Weather Emergency Repair Act or the POWER Act
This bill directs the Department of Energy (DOE)	to maintain a database of information on electricity outages that is publicly accessible and includes the specific cause and impact of the outages.
DOE shall promulgate a rule to require each electric utility to report to the Energy Information Administration information on electricity outages that interrupt service resulting in a loss of more than 300 megawatts or affecting at least 50,000 electric customers.

[Congressional Bills 115th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 4063 Introduced in House (IH)]

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115th CONGRESS
  1st Session
                                H. R. 4063

     To require the Secretary of Energy to maintain a database of 
      information on electricity outages, and for other purposes.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                            October 12, 2017

   Mr. Soto introduced the following bill; which was referred to the 
                    Committee on Energy and Commerce

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
     To require the Secretary of Energy to maintain a database of 
      information on electricity outages, and for other purposes.

    Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

    This Act may be cited as the ``Power Outage for Weather Emergency 
Repair Act'' or the ``POWER Act''.

SEC. 2. ELECTRICITY OUTAGE DATABASE.

    (a) Database.--Not later than 90 days after the date of enactment 
of this Act, the Secretary of Energy shall maintain a database of 
information on electricity outages that--
            (1) is publicly accessible; and
            (2) includes--
                    (A) for each such outage--
                            (i) the specific cause of the outage, 
                        including type of weather event or natural 
                        disaster and strength of such weather event or 
                        natural disaster, if applicable; and
                            (ii) the impact of the outage, including 
                        duration and number of electric consumers 
                        affected, and megawatts lost, because of the 
                        interruption in electric service; and
                    (B) information that is categorized--
                            (i) by type and size of utility;
                            (ii) by impact of the outages;
                            (iii) by cause of the outages; or
                            (iv) in any other manner that the Secretary 
                        determines will make such information available 
                        and useful in the mitigation of future 
                        electricity outages.
    (b) Collection of Data.--The Secretary of Energy shall promulgate a 
rule to require each electric utility to report to the Secretary of 
Energy, acting through the Administrator of the Energy Information 
Administration, information on electricity outages of the electric 
utility for outages that interrupt electric service resulting in a loss 
of more than 300 megawatts or affecting at least 50,000 electric 
consumers.
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