(1) This rule applies to any electricity supplier that supplied electricity to one or more retail customers at any time during the twelve month period immediately preceding a compliance year.

(2) The following definitions apply to this rule:

(a) "billing demand" means actual metered demand or, if service is not metered, an engineering calculation of demand;

(b) "electricity supplier" means any person, corporation, business entity, or government entity that sells electricity to retail customers in the state of Montana and that is not a public utility or cooperative utility;

(c) "individual load" means the sum of the billing demands of each metered and/or unmetered account of a retail customer;

(d) "retail customer" means:

(i) any customer that purchases electricity supply for residential, commercial, or industrial end-use purposes, does not resell electricity to others, and is separately identified in a public utility's billing system as a person or entity to which bills are sent for service to:

(A) metered and/or unmetered facilities located on contiguous property;

(B) public street and/or highway lights; and

(C) any combination of (2)(d)(i)(A) and (d)(i)(B); or

(ii) any customer determined by the Public Service Commission to be a retail customer on petition for such determination by either the electricity supplier or the customer.

(3) On an annual basis on or before March 31, an electricity supplier must submit to the commission a report disclosing:

(a) total number of retail customers served by month for the twelve month period ending December 31 of the prior year;

(b) total billed retail sales of electrical energy, measured in kilowatt-hours, by month for the twelve month period ending December 31 of the prior year;

(c) for each retail customer, billed sales of electrical energy, measured in kilowatt-hours, by month for the twelve month period ending December 31 of the prior year; and

(d) for each demand-metered retail customer, individual load by month for the twelve month period ending December 31 of the prior year.

(4) An electricity supplier may assign a unique number to each retail customer subject to the reporting requirement in (3)(c) and (3)(d) to protect the customer's identity. Based on the information in an electricity supplier's annual report, an officer must attest to whether or not the electricity supplier was a competitive electricity supplier during the period covered by the annual report. An electricity supplier must consent by signature of an officer to release by a public utility of the electricity supplier's retail customer load information to the commission for purposes of verifying information in an electricity supplier's annual report.

(5) If an electricity supplier is a competitive electricity supplier in any compliance year, the electricity supplier's annual report must demonstrate compliance with the renewable energy standards. Pursuant to 69-3-2004, MCA, a competitive electricity supplier must satisfy the renewable energy standard for all retail sales of electricity in Montana, which may exceed sales to small retail customers. Report blanks for demonstrating compliance are available from the commission.

(6) Renewable energy credits used to comply with the renewable energy standards must be generated by eligible renewable resources, as defined in 69-3-2003(7), MCA. A competitive electricity supplier must petition the commission to certify any source of renewable energy credits used to comply with the renewable energy standards.

(7) Renewable energy credits used to comply with the renewable resource standards must be tracked and verified through WREGIS unless otherwise specifically authorized by the commission. A competitive electricity supplier may request authorization to use a renewable energy credit tracking and verification mechanism other than WREGIS by submitting a written request to the commission. The commission will consider the request after noticing the request and providing interested persons an opportunity to comment and/or request a hearing.

(8) A competitive electricity supplier may petition the commission for a waiver from full compliance with the renewable resource standards. The petition must include documentation and evidence showing that the competitive electricity supplier has undertaken all reasonable steps to procure renewable energy credits sufficient to comply with the applicable standards and could not achieve full compliance due to one or more of the following:

(a) the unavailability of sufficient renewable energy credits;

(b) a determination by a public utility that integrating additional eligible renewable resources into the electrical grid would jeopardize the reliability of the electrical system despite reasonable efforts to mitigate reliability concerns;

(c) full compliance would cause the competitive electricity supplier to exceed the cost caps in 69-3-2007, MCA; and

(d) other documented reasons beyond the competitive supplier's control.

(9) An electricity supplier that is a competitive electricity supplier in any compliance year must submit a renewable energy procurement plan as part of its annual report. The renewable energy procurement plan must explain whether the electricity supplier expects to be a competitive electricity supplier in the upcoming compliance year and, if so, provide:

(a) an estimate of the competitive electricity supplier's total retail sales for the next compliance year;

(b) an estimate of the quantity of renewable energy credits needed to comply with the renewable energy standards; and

(c) the anticipated source(s) of the renewable energy credits.