republic-os/legislation/us/states/va/2017/sb-1473.md

---
type: "Bill"
title: "Electric utilities; recovery of costs of undergrounding distribution lines."
description: "Declares that the replacement of any subset of an investor-owned electric utility's existing overhead distribution tap lines that have, in the aggregate, an average of nine or more total unplanned outage events-per-mile over a preceding 10-year period with new underground facilities in order to improve electric service reliability is in the public interest. The measure also provides that there shall be a rebuttable presumption that (i) the conversion of such facilities will provide local and system-wide benefits, (ii) the new underground facilities are cost beneficial, and (iii) the costs associated with the new underground facilities are reasonably and prudently incurred. An enactment clause provides that the measure shall apply to any applications pending with the Commission regarding new underground facilities on or after January 1, 2017. Another enactment clause directs an investor-owned incumbent electric utility to provide written notice to any cable operator of a cable television system that has attached its facilities to its poles that will be replaced in a project to underground existing overhead distribution tap lines not less than 90 days prior to relocating the utility's overhead distribution lines. The clause also establishes a procedure for negotiating a common shared underground easement."
jurisdiction: "us/states/va"
legislature: "Virginia General Assembly"
session: "2017"
identifier: "SB 1473"
citation: "Virginia SB 1473 (2017)"
classification: ["bill"]
subjects: ["Public Service Companies"]
status: "enacted"
primary_sponsors: ["Richard L. Saslaw"]
version_count: 4
action_count: 19
vote_count: 6
first_action: "2017-01-17"
last_action: "2017-03-16"
source: "openstates"
source_identifier: "ocd-bill/03ab464d-abf6-412b-b6bf-d3becb95ecac"
source_url: "http://lis.virginia.gov/cgi-bin/legp604.exe?171+sum+SB1473"
source_hash: "e82403994fa2ad3c82c62d4d8d6940d8f1965dd489aab13de68f8f5cf55e2662"
vintage: "2026-07-01"
source_snapshot: "https://data.openstates.org/daily/2026-07-01/public.pgdump"
retrieved_at: "2026-07-06"
confidence: "reported"
tags: ["legislation", "bill", "us-va"]
---

# Virginia SB 1473 (2017) — Electric utilities; recovery of costs of undergrounding distribution lines.

Declares that the replacement of any subset of an investor-owned electric utility's existing overhead distribution tap lines that have, in the aggregate, an average of nine or more total unplanned outage events-per-mile over a preceding 10-year period with new underground facilities in order to improve electric service reliability is in the public interest. The measure also provides that there shall be a rebuttable presumption that (i) the conversion of such facilities will provide local and system-wide benefits, (ii) the new underground facilities are cost beneficial, and (iii) the costs associated with the new underground facilities are reasonably and prudently incurred. An enactment clause provides that the measure shall apply to any applications pending with the Commission regarding new underground facilities on or after January 1, 2017. Another enactment clause directs an investor-owned incumbent electric utility to provide written notice to any cable operator of a cable television system that has attached its facilities to its poles that will be replaced in a project to underground existing overhead distribution tap lines not less than 90 days prior to relocating the utility's overhead distribution lines. The clause also establishes a procedure for negotiating a common shared underground easement.

## Version chain

The bill's text revisions, in order — the diff chain from filing to enrollment.

1. **Governor: Acts of Assembly Chapter text (CHAP0583)** (committee substitute) — [source](http://lis.virginia.gov/cgi-bin/legp604.exe?171+ful+CHAP0583)
2. **Senate: Bill text as passed Senate and House (SB1473ER)** (committee substitute) — [source](http://lis.virginia.gov/cgi-bin/legp604.exe?171+ful+SB1473ER)
3. **Senate: Presented and ordered printed 17103391D** (committee substitute) — [source](http://lis.virginia.gov/cgi-bin/legp604.exe?171+ful+SB1473)
4. **Senate: Printed as engrossed 17103391D-E** (committee substitute) — [source](http://lis.virginia.gov/cgi-bin/legp604.exe?171+ful+SB1473E)

## Votes

- Constitutional reading dispensed — **40–0** (pass) · legislature
- Passed Senate — **37–3** (pass) · legislature
- Reported from Commerce and Labor — **21–0** (pass) · legislature
- Passed House — **92–4** (pass) · legislature
- Reported from Commerce and Labor with amendments — **14–0** (pass) · legislature
- Constitutional reading dispensed — **40–0** (pass) · legislature

## Sponsors

- Richard L. Saslaw — primary (person)

## Timeline

The legislative action history — every referral, reading, and vote.

- **2017-01-17** Presented and ordered printed 17103391D `introduction`
- **2017-01-17** Referred to Committee on Commerce and Labor `referral-committee`
- **2017-02-02** Read second time `reading-2`
- **2017-02-02** Reading of amendments waived
- **2017-02-02** Committee amendments agreed to
- **2017-02-02** Engrossed by Senate as amended SB1473E
- **2017-02-02** Printed as engrossed 17103391D-E
- **2017-02-06** Placed on Calendar
- **2017-02-06** Read first time `reading-1`
- **2017-02-06** Referred to Committee on Commerce and Labor `referral-committee`
- **2017-02-16** Read second time `reading-2`
- **2017-02-17** Read third time `reading-3`
- **2017-02-17** Passed House (92-Y 4-N 2-A) `passage`
- **2017-02-22** Enrolled
- **2017-02-22** Signed by President
- **2017-02-22** Signed by Speaker
- **2017-02-23** Enrolled Bill Communicated to Governor on 2/23/17
- **2017-02-23** Governor's Action Deadline Midnight, March 27, 2017
- **2017-03-16** Approved by Governor-Chapter 583 (effective 1/1/17) `executive-signature`

## Source

OpenStates / OpenCivicData bulk snapshot [2026-07-01](https://data.openstates.org/daily/2026-07-01/public.pgdump); origin `ocd-bill/03ab464d-abf6-412b-b6bf-d3becb95ecac`. Confidence: reported (aggregated from official Virginia legislature records).