(a) The commission may authorize investor-owned gas and electric utilities to match grants provided to nonprofit agencies and local governments to participate in the Department of Economic Opportunity’s pilot program to identify and counsel low-income individuals and group facilities that are eligible to receive rate discounts and weatherization benefits offered by those utilities. The amount of utility matching funds for the pilot program shall be limited to a statewide total of three hundred thousand dollars ($300,000). The commission shall require that utility expenditures for those purposes be recoverable in rates.
(b) If federal funds become available for low-income energy assistance or weatherization programs that may be secured with matching funds from states or utilities, the commission may authorize investor-owned gas and electric utilities to match those federal funds, and shall require that utility expenditures for those purposes be recoverable in rates.