2023 Massachusetts General Laws › Part I - Administration of the Government › Title XXII - Corporations › Chapter 164a - New England Power Pool › Section 9 - Application of Other Laws to Pool Members; Rate Base Factors

Section 9. (a) Except as otherwise expressly provided in this chapter, a domestic electric utility shall not be exempt from nor lose the benefits of any applicable laws of the commonwealth solely by reason of being a member of the New England power pool.
(b)(1) In addition to those sections of chapter one hundred sixty-four already applicable to a city or town owning or acquiring a municipal electric department, there shall be applicable to any municipal electric department which acquires or is acquiring or has any interest in an electric power facility, and so long as it retains such interest in such facility or has outstanding notes or bonds issued under this chapter, the following additional sections of said chapter: fourteen, seventeen A, seventy-one, seventy-two, seventy-two A, seventy-three, seventy-four, seventy-five, seventy-six, eighty-seven, eighty-eight, ninety and ninety-one; provided, however, that:
(i) section fourteen of chapter one hundred sixty-four shall be applicable only if the financing consists of revenue bonds or notes in anticipation thereof, issued pursuant to sections eleven to twenty-two, inclusive; except with respect to refunding bonds issued under section twenty-one, the department in rendering its decision shall, in addition to the other requirements of said section fourteen of said chapter one hundred sixty-four, approve only such issue as the department finds is appropriate to finance an electric power facility necessary to supply the load plus reserve requirements created by the municipal electric department's retail customers, and by such wholesale customers as may have existed on April first, nineteen hundred and seventy-three, said load plus reserve requirements to be forecast by the department at a time three years beyond the scheduled date for commencement of commercial operation of the facility; in evaluating the ability of the municipal electric department to supply its load plus reserve requirements at said time, the department shall deduct from these requirements all capacity in other generating units to which the municipal electric department will then be entitled by ownership or contract, including any contracts for the purchase of electricity to be in force at said time;
(ii) the provisions of sections forty to sixty-nine, inclusive, of chapter one hundred sixty-four shall continue to be applicable to any such municipal electric department except insofar as such provisions are inconsistent with other provisions of this chapter or of chapter one hundred sixty-four herein made applicable to such municipal electric department;
(iii) any law, municipal by-law or ordinance relating to contracts awarded by municipal electric departments for construction, reconstruction, alteration, remodeling, repair, demolition, equipment, supplies or materials shall not be applicable to contracts related to electric power facilities wherever the utility or utilities having primary responsibility for the construction or operation of the facility are not municipal electric departments;
(iv) the provisions of sections seventy-one to seventy-four, inclusive, seventy-six, eighty-seven, eighty-eight, ninety and ninety-one of chapter one hundred sixty-four shall be applicable to municipal electric departments only with respect to electric power facilities; provided, however, that under section seventy-two of said chapter one hundred sixty-four a municipal electric department shall be not authorized to take by eminent domain any lands or interest therein of another electric utility except to the same extent that an ''electric company'', as defined in section one of said chapter one hundred sixty-four, may have such authority; and
(v) the provisions of section seventy-five of chapter one hundred sixty-four shall be applicable to electric power facilities outside the retail territory of the municipal electric department only.
(2) Sections twenty-one to twenty-two N, inclusive, and twenty-five to forty-one, inclusive, of chapter one hundred sixty-six shall, to the extent not otherwise applicable to a municipal electric department, be applicable to such electric department only with respect to electric power facilities.
(c) Legislative consent is hereby given to the application, pursuant to authority granted in this chapter, or regulatory and other laws of other states and of the United States to any domestic electric utility which owns or operates electric power facilities without the commonwealth.
(d) In addition to ownership, sole or joint, in electric power facilities, the department shall include in the rate base of a domestic electric utility any investments, including securities, prepayments, retained earnings or other investments, acquired by it in connection with its participation in an electric power facility.