2023 Laws of Puerto Rico › TITLE TWENTY-TWO - Public Works (§§ 1 — 1104) › Chapter 28 - Puerto Rico Energy Transformation and RELIEF Act (§§ 1051 — 1056) › Subchapter IV - Creation, Structure, Operation, Budget, and General Powers of the Puerto Rico Energy Administration and the Energy Commission (§§ 1054 — 1054rr) › § 1054o - Budget and regulatory fees

(a) The Commission shall impose and collect fees pursuant to the provisions of this section in order to generate sufficient income to:
(1) Cover the operating expenses of the Commission and CEPPO in fulfilling its responsibilities under this chapter.
(b) The annual fee shall be fixed by the Commission proportionally on the basis of the gross income earned by any person under the jurisdiction of the Commission from the provision of electric power services, or electric power transmission services. These fees shall be paid to the Commission on a quarterly basis, pursuant to the regulations promulgated by the same. The Commission shall review annually the fee to be imposed on persons under its jurisdiction, in accordance with this section.
(c) Every year, the Authority shall set aside five million eight hundred thousand dollars ($5,800,000) from its income to be transferred to a special account created in the Department of the Treasury to defray the operating expenses of the Energy Commission. The Authority shall annually remit from these resources the sum of two million nine hundred thousand dollars ($2,900,000) to the Department of the Treasury by July 15. The balance of the two million nine hundred thousand dollars ($2,900,000) shall be remitted to the Department of the Treasury by December 15 of each year. However, on Fiscal Year 2014-2015, the Authority shall pay the first installment of the annual fee, in the amount of two million nine hundred thousand dollars ($2,900,000) within ten (10) days after the approval of this Act. In addition, the Commission shall charge the Authority or the Corporation for any services provided in relation to any request of the Corporation in connection with the evaluation and enforcement of a Restructuring Order, as well as any verifications made to ascertain compliance with the calculation of the Transition Charge and the Adjustment Mechanism approved under the Restructuring Order. To that effect, not later than sixty (60) days after receiving the Commission’s invoice, the Authority shall remit to the Secretary of the Treasury, payable to the Commission, a sum that shall not exceed five hundred thousand dollars ($500,000) for the Commission’s review of the Corporation’s petition. Every year thereafter and not later than sixty (60) days after receiving the Commission’s invoice, the Authority shall remit to the Secretary of the Treasury, payable to the Commission, a sum that shall not exceed one hundred thousand dollars ($100,000) for the verifications made by the Commission to ascertain compliance with the calculation of the Transition Charges and the Adjustment Mechanisms approved under the Restructuring Order. The Authority shall obtain the necessary funds to pay the Commission from the revenues arising from the subsidies item on its rate.
(d) Any other person or electric power service company that earns profit from the generation of electric power shall pay a fee to the Commission that shall not exceed point twenty-five percent (.25%) of its annual gross income earned from the provision of such services in Puerto Rico. No electric power service company that has entered into a power purchase agreement, an interconnection agreement, or a wheeling agreement with PREPA may claim a refund for or include the expenses incurred in connection with the annual fee paid to the Commission in the computation of rates, the capacity fee, energy fee or any other fee or sum of money that such electric power service company collects from PREPA under such power purchase agreement, interconnection agreement, or wheeling agreement. This provision shall apply to any electric power company under the jurisdiction of the Commission, insofar as it does not impair the contractual obligations with existing cogenerators arising from any agreements that are in effect as of the approval of this act.
(e) The Secretary of the Treasury shall cover into a special account denominated as the “Special Energy Commission Reserve Fund”, the moneys collected by virtue of this chapter, which shall be used solely and exclusively to defray the operating expenses of the Commission and shall be deemed to be de jure allocated for such purposes.
(f) Any person under the jurisdiction of the Commission shall submit the information required by the Commission in the manner and on the forms that the Commission prescribes so that it can identify the amount of the fees established under this section.
(g) Persons under the jurisdiction of the Commission shall comply with and satisfy the payment of the fees imposed within a term that shall not exceed thirty (30) days after notice to such purposes. Any delay in the payment of said fees shall be subject to the payment of interest and penalties as determined by the Commission through regulations. The payment of such fees shall be made in the manner that the Commission specifies in any notice of fees.
(h) The operating expense budget of the Commission shall be set aside on a separate item in the General Expense Budget of the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico.
History —May 27, 2014, No. 57, § 6.16; Feb. 16, 2016, No. 4, § 17.