56-240 - Proposed rates, etc., or changes thereof, not suspended effective subject to later change by Commission; refund or credit; appeal; investor-owned public utilities required to show increase co
§ 56-240. Proposed rates, etc., or changes thereof, not suspended effectivesubject to later change by Commission; refund or credit; appeal;investor-owned public utilities required to show increase complies with §56-235.2.
Unless the Commission so suspends such schedule of rates, tolls, charges,rules and regulations, or changes thereof, the same shall go into effect asoriginally filed by any public utility as defined in § 56-232, upon the datespecified in the schedule subject, however, to the power of the Commission,upon investigation thereafter, to fix and order substituted therefor suchrate or rates, tolls, charges, rules, or regulations, as shall be just andreasonable, as provided in §§ 56-235 and 56-247. The Commission maythereupon, in its discretion, order such public utility to refund or givecredit promptly to the parties entitled thereto any portion or all of thecharges originally filed by the public utility which may have been collectedor received in excess of those charges finally fixed and ordered substitutedtherefor by the Commission. Rates of any utility found to be operating inviolation of § 56-265.3 may be deemed subject to refund by the Commission, onits own motion, as of the date of the Commission's order finding that theutility was operating in violation of § 56-265.3. Such rates shall then beinterim in nature and subject to refund until such time as the Commission hasdetermined the appropriateness of the rates. Any amount of the rates foundexcessive by the Commission shall be subject to refund with interest, as maybe ordered by the Commission.
From any action of the Commission in prescribing rates, refunds, credits,tolls, charges, rules and regulations or changes thereof, an appeal may betaken by the corporation whose rates, refunds, credits, tolls, charges, rulesand regulations or changes thereof are affected, or by the Commonwealth, orby any person deeming himself aggrieved by such action.
No rate increase shall go into effect under the provisions of this sectionfor an investor-owned gas, telephone or electric public utility unless suchpublic utility has filed with its schedule information and data designed toshow that any increase complies with the just and reasonable requirements of§ 56-235.2, and unless based thereon the Commission finds a reasonableprobability that the increase will be justified upon full investigation andhearing. The Commission is authorized to promulgate any rules necessary toimplement this provision.
(Code 1919, § 4066; 1918, p. 675; 1924, p. 540; 1927, pp. 124, 125; 1971 Ex.Sess., c. 31; 1973, c. 262; 1979, c. 249; 1998, c. 63.)