§ 39-1-27.6 - Standards of conduct.
SECTION 39-1-27.6
§ 39-1-27.6 Standards of conduct. –(a) An electric distribution company must conduct its business to conform withthe standards of conduct specified in subsections (b) through (e) of thissection.
(b) Except as provided in subdivision (2) of this subsectionand as authorized by the commission pursuant to § 39-1-27(g), theemployees of the electric distribution company engaged in distribution systemoperations must function independently of its employees, or the employees ofany of its affiliates, who are engaged in the business of a nonregulated powerproducer.
(2) Notwithstanding any other provisions in this section, inemergency circumstances affecting system reliability, electric distributioncompanies may take whatever steps are necessary to keep the system inoperation. Electric distribution companies must report to the commission eachemergency that resulted in any deviation from the standards of conduct, withintwenty-four (24) hours of such deviation.
(c) Any employee of any affiliate of an electric distributioncompany who is engaged in the business of a nonregulated power producer isprohibited from: conducting distribution system operations or reliabilityfunctions; and having access to the system control center or similar facilitiesused for distribution operations or reliability functions that differs in anyway from the access available to other nonregulated power producers.
(2) Employees engaged in either an affiliated nonregulatedpower producer function or an electric distribution function are not precludedfrom transferring between such functions as long as such transfer is not usedas a means to circumvent the standards of conduct of this section. Notices ofany employee transfer to or from electric distribution company operation orreliability functions must be reported to the commission. The information to bereported must include: the name of the transferring employee, the respectivetitles held while performing each function (i.e. on behalf of the electricdistribution company and the nonregulated power producer), and the effectivedate of the transfer.
(3) Any employee of any affiliate of an electric distributioncompany who is engaged in the nonregulated power producer function must nothave preferential access to any information about the electric distributioncompany's distribution system that is not available to all nonregulated powerproducers.
(4) An electric distribution company is responsible forensuring that any employee of the electric distribution company may notdisclose to employees of any affiliate engaged in a nonregulated power producerfunction any information concerning the distribution system of the electricdistribution company or the distribution system of another (includinginformation received from non-affiliates or information about distributionsystem operations, capability, price, curtailments, auxiliary services, and thelike) through non-public communications that is not at the same time availableto all nonregulated power producers without restriction. If an employee of theelectric distribution company engaged in distribution system operations orreliability functions discloses information in a manner contrary to therequirements of the standards of conduct, the electric distribution companymust immediately report such information to the commission. An electricdistribution company may not share any market information, acquired fromnonaffiliated, nonregulated power producers or developed in the course ofresponding to requests for distribution service, with any employee of anaffiliate engaged in a nonregulated power producer function.
(5) All employees of the electric distribution company mustapply all tariff provisions in a fair and impartial manner that treats allcustomers (including those of an affiliated nonregulated power producer) in anondiscriminatory manner. The electric distribution company may not offer adiscount on purchases of distribution service where this discount isconditioned upon such customers purchasing power from a nonregulated powerproducer that is affiliated with the electric distribution company, nor shallan electric distribution company give preferences of any type in the provisionof distribution service for customers purchasing power supply from anonregulated power producer that is affiliated with the electric distributioncompany.
(d) An electric distribution company must maintain its booksof accounts and records separately from those of its affiliates and these mustbe available for commission inspection.
(e) The electric distribution company must maintain in apublic place, and file with the commission, current written proceduresimplementing the standards of conduct in such detail as will enable customersand the commission to determine that the electric distribution company is incompliance with the requirements of this section.