56-245.3 - Commission to promulgate regulations and standards.
§ 56-245.3. Commission to promulgate regulations and standards.
A. Notwithstanding any law to the contrary, the Commission shall promulgateregulations and standards under which any owner, operator, or manager of anapartment house, office building or shopping center, which is notindividually metered for electricity or gas for each dwelling unit ornonresidential rental unit may install submetering equipment or energyallocation equipment for the purpose of fairly allocating (a) the cost ofelectrical or gas consumption for each dwelling unit or nonresidential rentalunit and (b) electrical or gas demand and customer charges made by theutility. In addition to other appropriate safeguards for the tenant, theregulations shall require (i) that an apartment house, office building orshopping center owner shall not impose on the tenant any charges, over andabove the cost per kilowatt hour, cubic foot or therm, plus demand andcustomer charges, where applicable, which are charged by the utility companyto the owner, including any sales, local utility, or other taxes, if any,except that additional service charges permitted by § 55-226.2 may becollected to cover administrative costs and billing, and (ii) that theapartment house, office building or shopping center owner shall maintainadequate records regarding submetering and energy allocation equipment andshall make such records available for inspection by the Commission duringreasonable business hours. The provisions of this section shall not restrictthe right of the owner, operator or manager to recover in periodic leasepayments the tenant's fair share of electricity or gas costs attributable toowner-paid areas and costs incurred by the owner, operator or manager inestablishing and maintaining the submetering or energy allocation equipment.
B. Only for purposes of Commission enforcement of the regulations adoptedunder this section, the owners, operators, or managers of apartment houses,office buildings or shopping centers included within the purview of thisarticle shall be treated as public service corporations under §§ 56-5, 56-6and 56-7. All submetering equipment shall be subject to the same regulationsand standards established by the Commission for accuracy, testing, and recordkeeping of meters installed by electric or gas utilities and shall be subjectto the meter requirements of § 56-245.1. All energy allocation equipmentshall be subject to regulations and standards established by the Commissionto ensure that such systems result in a reasonable determination of energyuse and the resulting costs for each dwelling unit or nonresidential rentalunit. Violations of Commission regulations and orders issued under thissection shall be subject to the penalty set forth in § 12.1-33.
C. In implementing this section, no apartment house, office building orshopping center shall be considered a public utility or public servicecorporation engaged in the business of distributing or reselling electricityor gas except as provided in subsection B of this section. The apartmenthouse, office building or shopping center may use submetering or energyallocation equipment solely to allocate the costs of electric or gas servicefairly among the tenants using the apartment house, office building orshopping center.
(1978, c. 392; 1979, c. 313; 1980, c. 741; 1986, c. 11; 1988, c. 231; 1989,c. 188; 1991, c. 573; 1992, c. 766; 2003, c. 355.)