(1) All records that a utility is required to keep by reason of these or other rules prescribed by the Commission shall be kept at the office or offices of the utility within this state, unless otherwise authorized by the Commission.
    (2) Any utility that keeps its records outside of the state shall reimburse the Commission for the reasonable travel expenses incurred by each Commission representative during any review of the out-of-state records of the utility or its affiliates. Reasonable travel expenses are those travel expenses that are equivalent to travel expenses paid by the Commission in the ordinary course of its business.
    (a) The utility shall remit reimbursement for out-of-state travel expenses within 30 days from the date the Commission mails the invoice.
    (b) The reimbursement requirement in subsection (2) shall be waived for any utility that makes its out-of-state records available at the utility’s office located in Florida or at another mutually agreed upon location in Florida within 10 working days from the Commission’s initial request. If the utility demonstrates that 10 working days is not reasonable because of the complexity and nature of the issues involved or the volume and type of material requested, the Commission will establish a different time frame for the utility to bring records into the state. For individual data requests made during an audit, the response time frame in Fl. Admin. Code R. 25-6.0151, shall control.
    (3) All records shall be preserved in accordance with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission’s regulations, Title 18, Subchapter C, Part 125, Code of Federal Regulations, entitled “”Preservation of Records of Public Utilities and Licensees”” (2013), which is hereby incorporated by reference into this rule, with the exception of the records listed in paragraph (3)(a) of this rule and may be accessed at http://www.flrules.org/Gateway/reference.asp?No=Ref-04828. Instead, utilities shall retain records listed in paragraph (3)(a) of this rule for the periods indicated.
    (a) The Code of Federal Regulations items listed below are exceptions to the Schedule of Records and Periods of Retention contained in Title 18, Subchapter C, Section 125.3, Code of Federal Regulations:
    1. Item 2(a), minute books of stockholders’, directors’, and directors’ committee meetings, earlier of 20 years or termination of the corporation‘s existence;
    2. Item 6(a)(1), general ledgers, 20 years;
    3. Item 6(a)(2), ledgers: subsidiary or auxiliary, 20 years;
    4. Item 7, journals: general and subsidiary, 20 years;
    5. Item 8(a), journal vouchers and journal entries, 20 years; and
    6. Item 20(a), appraisals and valuations made by the company of its properties or investments or of the properties or investments of any associated companies (includes all records essential thereto), 10 years after appraisal.
    (b) The utility shall not be required to retain original source documents once the documents have been added to a storage and retrieval system that consistently produces clear, readable copies of source documents and the content of the documents is identical to the originals including any handwritten notations on the documents.
    (c) The utility shall maintain written procedures governing the conversion of source documents to a storage and retrieval system, which procedures ensure the authenticity of documents and the completeness of records. Records maintained in the storage and retrieval system must be searchable and readable.
Rulemaking Authority Florida Statutes § 350.127(2), 366.05(1) FS. Law Implemented 366.05(1), (9), (11), 366.08, 366.093(1) FS. History-New 7-29-69, Amended 7-19-72, 1-11-76, 9-28-81, 11-18-82, Formerly 25-6.15, Amended 10-1-86, 11-2-87, 6-23-93, 11-13-95, 6-6-04, 2-2-15.