Amends TCA Title 4; Title 65, Chapter 1, Part 1 and Title 65, Chapter 4, Part 1.

This bill transfers the consumer advocate division in the office of the attorney general and reporter to the Tennessee public utility commission and renames the consumer advocate division the office of the public advocate. Under present law, the consumer advocate division has the duty and authority to represent the interests of Tennessee consumers of public utility services. This bill creates an independent office of the public advocate, which will be attached to the Tennessee public utility commission for administrative, fiscal, and personnel purposes only, and will otherwise be operationally independent from the commission. The office will be funded through a fee imposed on water, wastewater, electric, and natural gas public utilities doing business in this state who are subject to the control and supervision of the commission. The fee will be determined by the amount of the gross receipts from intrastate operations of each water, wastewater, electric, and natural gas public utility having in excess of $1 million in annual gross receipts from intrastate operations. The fee will be due beginning October 1, 2022, and on or before April 1, 2023, and each April 1 thereafter, and will be based on the previous calendar year's gross receipts from intrastate operations. The fee will be $2.00 per $1,000 of such gross receipts. The commissioners of the Tennessee public utility commission will appoint a director of the commission. The director must be an attorney or certified public accountant licensed to practice in this state and must have at least five years of work experience in the profession for which the director is a member. The office may, with approval of the director, evaluate the reasonableness of rates, changes, and practices of public utilities; and enter into agreements and stipulations with public utilities to balance the interests of persons it represents with the interests of public utilities to reduce formal litigation through contested cases and minimize the cost of regulation. Under this bill, if an irreconcilable dispute arises, either in a contested case proceeding or a request for information outside of a contested case proceeding that involves a request for or exchange of information between the office and a public utility subject to the control and supervision of the commission, the objecting party may petition the commission, after notice to the affected party, to hear and resolve the dispute by order of the commission. This bill provides that the director may initiate an appeal of a commission order or decision on the office's behalf, with the same rights of appeal as other parties to commission proceedings under the Uniform Administrative Procedures Act. The director must prepare an annual budget for the office for the next fiscal year and submit the budget for inclusion in the commission's budget request. Reports on the operations and other matters of the office must be filed by the director with the general assembly and the commission on the first Monday of February each year.