23-155.05 - Purchase of electric power and energy; duration of contracts; source of payments.
§ 23-155.05. Purchase of electric power and energy; duration of contracts;source of payments.
A. For purposes of this section:
"Other party" means any other entity, including but not limited to (i)another municipality or public institution of higher education or anypolitical subdivision, public authority, agency, or instrumentality of theCommonwealth, another state, or the United States of America or (ii) apartnership, limited liability company, not-for-profit corporation, electriccooperative, or investor-owned utility, whether created, incorporated, orotherwise organized and existing under the laws of the Commonwealth oranother state or the United States of America.
"Project" means any system or facilities for the generation, transmission,transformation, or supply of electrical power and energy by any meanswhatsoever, including but not limited to fuel, fuel transportation, and fuelsupply resources and other related facilities, any one or more electricgenerating units situated at a particular site, in the continental UnitedStates of America, or any interest in the foregoing, whether an undividedinterest as a tenant in common or otherwise, or any right to output, capacityor services thereof.
B. Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University may contract with anyother party to buy power and energy required for its present or futurerequirements. Such contracts may provide that the source of such power andenergy is limited to a specified project or may include provision forreplacement power and energy. Any such contract may provide that theUniversity shall be obligated to make payments required by the contractwhether or not a project is completed, operable, or operating andnotwithstanding the suspension, interruption, interference, reduction, orcurtailment of the output of a project or the power and energy contractedfor, and that such payments under the contract shall not be subject to anyreduction, whether by offset or otherwise, and shall not be conditioned uponthe performance or nonperformance by any other party. Such contracts, withrespect to any project, may also provide, in the event of default by theUniversity or any other party to any such contract for such project in theperformance of its obligations thereunder, for the University or other partyto any such contract for such project to succeed to the rights and interestsand assume the obligations of the defaulting party, pro rata or otherwise asmay be agreed upon in such contracts. Such contracts may provide that theother party is not obligated to provide power and energy in the event thatthe project specified to be the source of power and energy to be purchasedand sold under such contracts is inoperable or in the case of the suspension,interference, reduction or curtailment of the output of such project or inevents of force majeure.
Notwithstanding the provisions of any other law or charter provision to thecontrary, any such contract, with respect to the sale or purchase ofcapacity, output, power, or energy from a project, may extend for a periodnot exceeding 50 years from the date a project is estimated to be placed innormal continuous operation; and the execution and effectiveness thereofshall not be subject to any authorizations or approvals by the Commonwealthor any agency, commission, or instrumentality or political subdivisionthereof except as specifically required by law.
Any such contract shall provide that payments by the University under anysuch contract be made solely from, and may be secured by a pledge of and lienupon, the revenues derived by the University from the ownership and operationof the electric system of the University, and such payments shall constitutean operating expense of such electric system. No obligation under suchcontract shall constitute a legal or equitable pledge, charge, lien orencumbrance upon any property of the University or upon any of its income,receipts or revenues, except the revenues of its electric system, and thefaith and credit of the University are not, or may not be, pledged for thepayment of any obligation under any such contract. The University shall beobligated to fix, charge, and collect rents, rates, fees, and charges forelectric power and energy and other services, facilities, and commoditiessold, furnished, or supplied through its electric system sufficient toprovide revenues adequate to meet its obligations under any such contract andto pay any and all other amounts payable from or constituting a charge andlien upon such revenues, including amounts sufficient to pay the principal ofand interest on bonds of the University heretofore or hereafter issued forpurposes related to its electric system. Any pledge made by the Universitypursuant to this paragraph shall be governed by the laws of the Commonwealth.
(2007, cc. 612, 670.)