2016 -- S 2792

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LC005013

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     STATE OF RHODE ISLAND

IN GENERAL ASSEMBLY

JANUARY SESSION, A.D. 2016

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A N   A C T

RELATING TO PUBLIC UTILITIES AND CARRIERS -- PUBLIC UTILITIES COMMISSION

     Introduced By: Senator Louis P. DiPalma

     Date Introduced: March 23, 2016

     Referred To: Senate Commerce

     It is enacted by the General Assembly as follows:

     SECTION 1. Section 39-1-2 of the General Laws in Chapter 39-1 entitled "Public

Utilities Commission" is hereby amended to read as follows:

     39-1-2. Definitions. -- Terms used in this title shall be construed as follows, unless

another meaning is expressed or is clearly apparent from the language or context:

      (1) "Administrator" means the administrator of the division of public utilities and

carriers;

      (2) "Airport" and "landing field" mean and include all airports and landing fields other

than those owned by the state;

      (3) "Chairperson" means the chairperson of the public utilities commission;

      (4) "Charter carrier" means and includes all carriers for hire or compensation within this

state not included in the definition of common carrier;

      (5) "Commission" means the public utilities commission;

      (6) "Commissioner" means a member of the public utilities commission;

      (7) "Common carrier", except when used in chapters 12, 13, and 14 of this title, means

and includes all carriers for hire or compensation including railroads, street railways, express,

freight and freight line companies, dining car companies, steam boat, motor boat, power boat,

hydrofoil, and ferry companies and all other companies operating any agency or facility for

public use in this conveyance over fixed routes, or between fixed termini within this state or

persons or property by or by a combination of land, air, or water;

      (8) "Company" means and includes a person, firm, partnership, corporation, quasi-

municipal corporation, association, joint stock association or company, and his, her, its, or their

lessees, trustees, or receivers appointed by any court;

      (9) "Customer" means a company taking service from an electric distribution company at

a single point of delivery or meter location;

      (10) "Distribution facility" means plant or equipment used for the distribution of

electricity and which is not a transmission facility;

      (11) "Division" means the division of public utilities and carriers;

      (12) "Electric distribution company" means a company engaging in the distribution of

electricity or owning, operating, or controlling distribution facilities and shall be a public utility

pursuant to § 39-1-2(20);

      (13) "Electric transmission company" means a company engaging in the transmission of

electricity or owning, operating, or controlling transmission facilities. An electric transmission

company shall not be subject to regulation as a public utility except as specifically provided in the

general laws, but shall be regulated by the federal energy regulatory commission and shall

provide transmission service to all nonregulated power producers and customers, whether

affiliated or not, on comparable, nondiscriminatory prices and terms. Electric transmission

companies shall have the power of eminent domain exercisable following a petition to the

commission pursuant to § 39-1-31;

      (14) "Liquefied natural gas" means a fluid in the liquid state composed predominantly of

methane and which may contain minor quantities of ethane, propane, nitrogen, or other

components normally found in natural gas;

      (15) "Manufacturing customers" means all customers that have on file with an electric

distribution company a valid certificate of exemption from the Rhode Island sales tax indicating

the customer's status as a manufacturer pursuant to section 44-18-30;

      (16) "Motor carriers" means any carrier regulated by the administrator pursuant to

Chapters 3, 11, 12, 13 and 14 of this title;

     (17) "Motor carrier intervenor" means any holder of a certificate of public convenience

and necessity issued pursuant to chapter 14 of this title, who files a timely motion to intervene,

pursuant to the division of public utilities and carriers rules of practice and procedure, in any

matter before the motor carriers section of the division arising under chapter 14 or 14.1 of this

title. A "motor carrier intervenor" shall be considered an intervenor by right conferred by statute.

      (17)(18) "Natural gas" means the combustible gaseous mixture of low-molecular-weight,

paraffin hydrocarbons, generated below the surface of the earth containing mostly methane and

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ethane with small amounts of propane, butane, and hydrocarbons, and sometimes nitrogen,

carbon dioxide, hydrogen sulfide, and helium;

      (18)(19) "Nonprofit housing development corporation" means a nonprofit corporation,

which has been approved as a section 501(c)(3), 26 U.S.C. section 501(c)(3), corporation by the

internal revenue service, and which is organized and operated primarily for the purpose of

providing housing for low and moderate income persons;

      (19)(20) "Nonregulated power producer" means a company engaging in the business of

producing, manufacturing, generating, buying, aggregating, marketing or brokering electricity for

sale at wholesale or for retail sale to the public; provided however, that companies which

negotiate the purchase of electric generation services on behalf of customers and do not engage in

the purchase and resale of electric generation services shall be excluded from this definition. A

nonregulated power producer shall not be subject to regulation as a public utility except as

specifically provided in the general laws;

      (20)(21) "Public utility" means and includes every company that is an electric

distribution company and every company operating or doing business in intrastate commerce and

in this state as a railroad, street railway, common carrier, gas, liquefied natural gas, water,

telephone, telegraph, and pipeline company, and every company owning, leasing, maintaining,

managing, or controlling any plant or equipment or any part of any plant or equipment within this

state for manufacturing, producing, transmitting, distributing, delivering, or furnishing natural or

manufactured gas, directly or indirectly to or for the public, or any cars or equipment employed

on or in connection with any railroad or street railway for public or general use within this state,

or any pipes, mains, poles, wires, conduits, fixtures, through, over, across, under, or along any

public highways, parkways or streets, public lands, waters, or parks for the transmission,

transportation, or distribution of gas for sale to the public for light, heat, cooling, or power for

providing audio or visual telephonic or telegraphic communication service within this state or any

pond, lake, reservoir, stream, well, or distributing plant or system employed for the distribution of

water to the consuming public within this state including the water supply board of the city of

Providence; provided, that, except as provided in section 39-16-9 and in chapter 2072 of the

public laws, 1933, as amended, this definition shall not be construed to apply to any public

waterworks or water service owned and furnished by any city, town, water district, fire district, or

any other municipal or quasi-municipal corporation, excepting the water supply board of the city

of Providence, unless any city, town, water district, fire district, municipal, or quasi-municipal

corporation obtains water from a source owned or leased by the water resources board, either

directly or indirectly, or obtains a loan from the board pursuant to the provisions of chapter 15 of

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title 46, or sells water, on a wholesale or retail basis, inside and outside the territorial limits of the

city or town, water district, fire district, municipal or quasi-municipal corporation, except,

however, that a public waterworks or water service owned and furnished by any city, town, water

district, fire district, or any other municipal or quasi-municipal corporation which sells water, on

a wholesale or retail basis, inside and outside its territorial limits shall not be construed as a

public utility if it has fewer than one-thousand five hundred (1500) total customer service

connections and provided outside sales do not exceed ten percent (10%) of the total water service

connections or volumetric sales and provided the price charged to outside customers, per unit of

water, is not greater than the price charged to inside customers for the same unit of water, nor to

the Rhode Island public transit authority, or to the production and/or distribution of steam, heat,

or water by Rhode Island port authority and economic development corporation in the town of

North Kingstown; and the term "public utility" shall also mean and include the Narragansett Bay

water quality management district commission; and provided that the ownership or operation of a

facility by a company which dispenses alternative fuel or energy sources at retail for use as a

motor vehicle fuel or energy source, and the dispensing of alternative fuel or energy sources at

retail from such a facility, does not make the company a public utility within the meaning of this

title solely because of that ownership, operation, or sale; and provided further that this exemption

shall not apply to presently regulated public utilities which sell natural gas or are dispensers of

other energy sources; and provided further, that the term "public utility" shall not include any

company; :

      (i) Producing or distributing steam or heat from a fossil fuel fired cogeneration plant

located at the university of Rhode Island, South Kingstown, Rhode Island;

      (ii) Producing and/or distributing thermal energy and/or electricity to a state owned

facility from a plant located on an adjacent site regardless of whether steam lines cross a public

highway; and

      (iii) Providing wireless service. ;

      (21)(22) "Purchasing cooperatives" shall mean any association of electricity consumers

which join for the purpose of negotiating the purchase of power from a nonregulated power

producer, provided however, that purchasing cooperatives shall not be required to be legal entities

and are prohibited from being engaged in the re-sale of electric power;

      (22)(23) "Railroad" means and includes every railroad other than a street railway, by

whatsoever power operated for public use in the conveyance in this state of persons or property

for compensation, with all bridges, ferries, tunnels, switches, spurs, tracks, stations, wharves, and

terminal facilities of every kind, used, operated, controlled, leased, or owned by or in connection

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with any railroad;

      (23)(24) "Retail access" means the use of transmission and distribution facilities owned

by an electric transmission company or an electric distribution company to transport electricity

sold by a nonregulated power producer to retail customers pursuant to section 39-1-27.3;

      (24)(25) "Street railway" means and includes every railway by whatsoever power

operated or any extension or extensions, branch, or branches thereof, for public use in the

conveyance in this state of persons or property for compensation, being mainly upon, along,

above, or below any street, avenue, road, highway, bridge, or public place in any city or town,

and including all switches, spurs, tracks, rights of trackage, subways, tunnels, stations, terminals

and terminal facilities of every kind, used, operated, controlled, or owned by or in connection

with any street railway;

      (25)(26) "Transmission facility" means plant or equipment used for the transmission of

electricity as determined by the federal energy regulatory commission pursuant to federal law as

of the date of the property transfers pursuant to section 39-1-27(c);

      (26)(27) Notwithstanding any provision of this section or any provision of the act

entitled, "An Act Relating to the Utility Restructuring Act of 1996" (hereinafter "Utility

Restructuring Act"), upon request by the affected electric utility, the commission may exempt

from the Utility Restructuring Act or any provision(s) thereof, an electric utility which meets the

following requirements:

     (i) the utility is not selling or distributing electricity outside of the service territory in

effect for that utility on the date of passage of the Utility Restructuring Act; and

     (ii) the number of kilowatt hours sold or distributed annually by the utility to the public is

less than five percent (5%) of the total kilowatt hours consumed annually by the state. Provided

however that nothing contained in this section shall prevent the commission from allowing

competition in the generation of electricity in service territories of utilities exempted in whole or

in part from the Utility Restructuring Act pursuant to this section, as long as such allowance of

competition is conditioned upon payment to the exempted electric utility of a nonbypassable

transition charge calculated to recover the elements comparable in nature to the elements in

section 39-1-27.4(b) and (c) taking into consideration any unique circumstances applicable to the

exempted electric utility.;

      (27)(28) "Wireless service" means communication services provided over spectrum

licensed by or subject to the jurisdiction of the federal communications commission.

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     SECTION 2. This act shall take effect upon passage.

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LC005013

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EXPLANATION

BY THE LEGISLATIVE COUNCIL

OF

A N   A C T

RELATING TO PUBLIC UTILITIES AND CARRIERS -- PUBLIC UTILITIES COMMISSION

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     This act would define "motor carrier intervenor" as used in proceedings before the public

utilities commission.

     This act would take effect upon passage.

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LC005013

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