Connecticut General Statutes 16-47a – Code of conduct for gas company transactions with affiliates
(a) As used in this section, “affiliate” means a person, as defined in section 16-1, or class of persons that, with a gas company, as defined in said section 16-1, is under the control of the same holding company, or a person or class of persons that the Public Utilities Regulatory Authority may, after notice and hearing, find has such a relation to a gas company conducting business and financial transactions that involve cross-subsidization or preferential treatment between the company and such person or class of persons as to make it necessary to protect ratepayers.
Terms Used In Connecticut General Statutes 16-47a
- Authority: means the Public Utilities Regulatory Authority and "department" means the Department of Energy and Environmental Protection. See Connecticut General Statutes 16-1
- Contract: A legal written agreement that becomes binding when signed.
- Equitable: Pertaining to civil suits in "equity" rather than in "law." In English legal history, the courts of "law" could order the payment of damages and could afford no other remedy. See damages. A separate court of "equity" could order someone to do something or to cease to do something. See, e.g., injunction. In American jurisprudence, the federal courts have both legal and equitable power, but the distinction is still an important one. For example, a trial by jury is normally available in "law" cases but not in "equity" cases. Source: U.S. Courts
- Gas company: includes every person owning, leasing, maintaining, operating, managing or controlling mains, pipes or other fixtures, in public highways or streets, for the transmission or distribution of gas for sale for heat or power within this state, or engaged in the manufacture of gas to be so transmitted or distributed for such purpose, but shall not include (A) a person manufacturing gas through the use of a biomass gasification plant provided such person does not own, lease, maintain, operate, manage or control mains, pipes or other fixtures in public highways or streets, (B) a municipal gas utility established under chapter 101 or any other gas utility owned, leased, maintained, operated, managed or controlled by any unit of local government under any general statute or any public or special act, or (C) an entity approved to submeter pursuant to section 16-19ff. See Connecticut General Statutes 16-1
- Person: means an individual, business, firm, corporation, association, joint stock association, trust, partnership or limited liability company. See Connecticut General Statutes 16-1
(b) The Public Utilities Regulatory Authority shall establish a code of conduct that sets minimum standards for gas company transactions with affiliates to achieve, at a minimum, the following goals, provided such code shall not interfere with interactions with regulated affiliates that are consistent with appropriate and efficient business practice or the public interest:
(1) Provide rules for when the purchases or sales of goods or services between a gas company and an affiliate should be by written contract based on such factors as the nature, value and term of the purchase or sale;
(2) Provide rules with respect to sharing or giving access to certain types of customer identifying or commercially sensitive information to affiliates that may differ between regulated and unregulated affiliates;
(3) Provide for a system of records and reporting for transactions between a gas company and its affiliates;
(4) Establish standards to ensure that any payment by a gas company to any affiliate or from any affiliate to a gas company is appropriate and reasonable;
(5) Provide a standard for avoidance of conflict of interest between a gas company and affiliates;
(6) Ensure that any such transactions shall not have an improper and adverse impact on the costs or revenues of the gas company, on the rates and charges paid by gas company customers or on the quality of service provided by the gas company;
(7) Ensure that gas company ratepayers do not subsidize affiliate operations;
(8) Ensure fair, appropriate and equitable standards for purchases, sales, leases, asset transfers and cost or profit-sharing transactions or any type of financing or encumbrance involving a gas company and its affiliates; and
(9) Ensure that gas supply and distribution services are provided by a gas company in an appropriate manner to affiliates and nonaffiliates alike.
(c) In addition to the powers granted to the authority in section 16-8c, during a rate proceeding under 16-19, the authority may summon witnesses from an affiliate with which a gas company has had direct or indirect transactions, examine the affiliate under oath and order production, inspect and audit the books, records or other information relevant to any transaction that the authority has reason to believe has or will have an adverse impact on the costs and revenues of the affiliated gas company. Proprietary commercial and proprietary financial information of an affiliate provided pursuant to this section shall be confidential and protected by the authority as the authority deems appropriate, subject to the provisions of section 1-210.
(d) Each gas company shall submit to the authority records and such information as the authority may require, at intervals determined by the authority and in such form as the authority may order regarding affiliate transactions.
(e) The authority may, upon its own motion, investigate a gas company’s compliance with the code of conduct, and any such investigation shall be a contested case, as defined in section 4-166.
(f) The authority may make orders to enforce the code of conduct, including, but not limited to, cease and desist orders and may levy civil penalties pursuant to section 16-41 against entities subject to the code of conduct.
(g) The code of conduct shall not prohibit communications necessary to restore gas company service or to prevent or respond to emergency conditions.
(h) On or before November 1, 2010, the authority shall adopt regulations, in accordance with the provisions of chapter 54, to establish the code of conduct in accordance with subsection (b) of this section, related accounting and reporting requirements and procedures for gas company and affiliate compliance with this section.
(i) Any methodology for the allocation of costs between a gas company and other companies under the control of the same holding company currently approved by, or under current orders issued by, the Securities and Exchange Commission under the Public Utility Holding Company Act of 1935 or the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission under the Public Utility Holding Company Act of 2005, shall be entitled to a rebuttable presumption of reasonableness. Charges rendered to a gas company by an affiliate that is a traditional centralized service company shall be at cost and entitled to a rebuttable presumption of reasonableness.