skip
navigation

Search Law
School

Search Cornell

LII / Legal Information Institute

home

search

find a lawyer

donate

U.S. Code
collection

main page

faq

index

search

TITLE 16
> CHAPTER
12 > SUBCHAPTER
II > § 824e

Prev
| Next

§ 824e. Power of Commission to fix rates and charges;
determination of cost of production or transmission

How
Current is This?

(a) Unjust or preferential rates, etc.; statement of reasons for
changes; hearing; specification of issues

Whenever the Commission, after a hearing held upon its own
motion or upon complaint, shall find that any rate, charge, or classification,
demanded, observed, charged, or collected by any public utility for any
transmission or sale subject to the jurisdiction of the Commission, or that any
rule, regulation, practice, or contract affecting such rate, charge, or
classification is unjust, unreasonable, unduly discriminatory or preferential,
the Commission shall determine the just and reasonable rate, charge,
classification, rule, regulation, practice, or contract to be thereafter
observed and in force, and shall fix the same by order. Any complaint or motion
of the Commission to initiate a proceeding under this section shall state the
change or changes to be made in the rate, charge, classification, rule,
regulation, practice, or contract then in force, and the reasons for any
proposed change or changes therein. If, after review of any motion or complaint
and answer, the Commission shall decide to hold a hearing, it shall fix by order
the time and place of such hearing and shall specify the issues to be
adjudicated.

(b) Refund effective date; preferential proceedings; statement of
reasons for delay; burden of proof; scope of refund order; refund orders in
cases of dilatory behavior; interest

Whenever the Commission institutes a proceeding under this
section, the Commission shall establish a refund effective date. In the case of
a proceeding instituted on complaint, the refund effective date shall not be
earlier than the date of the filing of such complaint nor later than 5 months
after the filing of such complaint. In the case of a proceeding instituted by
the Commission on its own motion, the refund effective date shall not be earlier
than the date of the publication by the Commission of notice of its intention to
initiate such proceeding nor later than 5 months after the publication date.
Upon institution of a proceeding under this section, the Commission shall give
to the decision of such proceeding the same preference as provided under section
824d
of this title and otherwise act as speedily as possible. If no final decision is
rendered by the conclusion of the 180-day period commencing upon initiation of a
proceeding pursuant to this section, the Commission shall state the reasons why
it has failed to do so and shall state its best estimate as to when it
reasonably expects to make such decision. In any proceeding under this section,
the burden of proof to show that any rate, charge, classification, rule,
regulation, practice, or contract is unjust, unreasonable, unduly
discriminatory, or preferential shall be upon the Commission or the complainant.
At the conclusion of any proceeding under this section, the Commission may order
refunds of any amounts paid, for the period subsequent to the refund effective
date through a date fifteen months after such refund effective date, in excess
of those which would have been paid under the just and reasonable rate, charge,
classification, rule, regulation, practice, or contract which the Commission
orders to be thereafter observed and in force: Provided, That if the proceeding
is not concluded within fifteen months after the refund effective date and if
the Commission determines at the conclusion of the proceeding that the
proceeding was not resolved within the fifteen-month period primarily because of
dilatory behavior by the public utility, the Commission may order refunds of any
or all amounts paid for the period subsequent to the refund effective date and
prior to the conclusion of the proceeding. The refunds shall be made, with
interest, to those persons who have paid those rates or charges which are the
subject of the proceeding.

(c) Refund considerations; shifting costs; reduction in revenues;
“electric utility companies” and “registered holding company” defined

Notwithstanding subsection (b) of this section, in a
proceeding commenced under this section involving two or more electric utility
companies of a registered holding company, refunds which might otherwise be
payable under subsection (b) of this section shall not be ordered to the extent
that such refunds would result from any portion of a Commission order that

(1) requires a decrease in system production or transmission costs to
be paid by one or more of such electric companies; and

(2) is based upon a determination that the amount of such decrease
should be paid through an increase in the costs to be paid by other electric
utility companies of such registered holding company: Provided, That refunds, in
whole or in part, may be ordered by the Commission if it determines that the
registered holding company would not experience any reduction in revenues which
results from an inability of an electric utility company of the holding company
to recover such increase in costs for the period between the refund effective
date and the effective date of the Commission’s order. For purposes of this
subsection, the terms “electric utility companies” and “registered holding
company” shall have the same meanings as provided in the Public Utility Holding
Company Act of 1935, as amended.[1]

(d) Investigation of costs

The Commission upon its own motion, or upon the request of
any State commission whenever it can do so without prejudice to the efficient
and proper conduct of its affairs, may investigate and determine the cost of the
production or transmission of electric energy by means of facilities under the
jurisdiction of the Commission in cases where the Commission has no authority to
establish a rate governing the sale of such energy.

(e) Short-term sales

(1) In this subsection:

(A) The term “short-term sale” means an agreement for the sale of
electric energy at wholesale in interstate commerce that is for a period of 31
days or less (excluding monthly contracts subject to automatic renewal).

(B) The term “applicable Commission rule” means a Commission rule
applicable to sales at wholesale by public utilities that the Commission
determines after notice and comment should also be applicable to entities
subject to this subsection.

(2) If an entity described in section 824
(f)
of this title voluntarily makes a short-term sale of electric energy through an
organized market in which the rates for the sale are established by
Commission-approved tariff (rather than by contract) and the sale violates the
terms of the tariff or applicable Commission rules in effect at the time of the
sale, the entity shall be subject to the refund authority of the Commission
under this section with respect to the violation.

(3) This section shall not apply to—

(A) any entity that sells in total (including affiliates of the
entity) less than 8,000,000 megawatt hours of electricity per year; or

(B) an electric cooperative.

(4)

(A) The Commission shall have refund authority under paragraph (2)
with respect to a voluntary short term sale of electric energy by the Bonneville
Power Administration only if the sale is at an unjust and unreasonable rate.

(B) The Commission may order a refund under subparagraph (A) only for
short-term sales made by the Bonneville Power Administration at rates that are
higher than the highest just and reasonable rate charged by any other entity for
a short-term sale of electric energy in the same geographic market for the same,
or most nearly comparable, period as the sale by the Bonneville Power
Administration.

(C) In the case of any Federal power marketing agency or the Tennessee
Valley Authority, the Commission shall not assert or exercise any regulatory
authority or power under paragraph (2) other than the ordering of refunds to
achieve a just and reasonable rate.

[1] See References in Text note below.

Search this title:

Notes

No Pending
Update(s)
Parallel
authorities (CFR)
PDF (4 pages)

Title
16 RSS

Find an
environmental lawyer

Donations cover only 20% of
our costs.

Prev
| Next

LII has no control over and does not endorse any
external Internet site that contains links to or references LII.

about us

sitemap

help

terms of use