70-1014.

Electric generation facilities and transmission lines; approval or denial of application; findings required; regional line or facilities; additional consideration.

(1) After hearing, the board shall have authority to approve or deny the application. Except as provided in section 70-1014.01 for special generation applications, before approval of an application, the board shall find that:

(a) The application will serve the public convenience and necessity, and that the applicant can most economically and feasibly supply the electric service resulting from the proposed construction or acquisition without unnecessary duplication of facilities or operations; and

(b)(i) For any proposed electric generation facility that has a generating capacity that is greater than ten megawatts, the applicant has held at least one public meeting with advanced publicized notice in one of the counties in which the proposed facility will be located at which (A) at least fifty percent of the governing body of the electric supplier attends either in person or by videoconference, but with not less than one member of the governing body physically present, (B) the applicant explains the need for the proposed facility and the type of facility, and (C) real property owners in any of the counties in which the proposed facility will be located are provided an opportunity to comment on the proposed facility. The applicant shall provide a report to the board containing the minutes of any such meeting and how many people commented on the proposed facility. Documentation received at any such meeting shall be made available to the board upon its request. A meeting described in this subdivision is not subject to the requirements described in subdivision (3)(b)(iv) of section 84-1411.

(ii) This subdivision (b) shall not apply if the proposed facility will be located on real property owned by the applicant at the time of application.

(2) If the application involves a transmission line or related facilities planned and approved by a regional transmission organization and the regional transmission organization has issued a notice to construct or similar notice or order to a utility to construct the line or related facilities, the board shall also consider information from the regional transmission organization's planning process and may consider the benefits to the region, which shall include Nebraska, provided by the proposed line or related facilities as part of the board's process in determining whether to approve or deny the application.

(3) A privately developed renewable energy generation facility is exempt from this section if it complies with section 70-1014.02.