18 Cfr 154.501

Federal Energy Regulatory Commission
or a discounted rate is paid, the rate
reflected in the filing must be the rate
the natural gas company is contractually obligated to pay;
(ii) The filing must include appropriate credits for capacity released
under § 284.243 of this chapter with
workpapers showing the quantity released, the revenues received from the
release, the time period of the release,
and the natural gas pipeline on which
the release took place; and,
(iii) The filing must include a statement of the refunds received from each
upstream natural gas company which
are included in the rate adjustment.
The statement must conform to the requirements set forth in § 154.501.
(3) If the natural gas company is reflecting changes in its fuel reimbursement percentage, the filing must include:
(i) A summary statement of actual
gas inflows and outflows for each
month used to calculate the fuel reimbursement percentage or surcharge.
For purposes of establishing the surcharge, the summary statement must
be included for each month of the period over which the differences defined
in paragraph (c) of this section accumulate.
(ii) Where the fuel reimbursement
percentage is calculated based on estimated activity over a future period,
the period must be defined and the estimates used in the calculation must be
justified. If any of the estimates are
publicly available, include a reference
to the source.
(4) The natural gas company must
not recover costs and is not obligated
to return revenues which are applicable
to the period pre-dating the effectiveness of the tariff language setting forth
the periodic rate change mechanism,
unless permitted or required to do so
by the Commission.
[Order 582, 60 FR 52996, Oct. 11, 1995, as
amended by Order 714, 73 FR 57535, Oct. 3,
2008]

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Subpart F—Refunds and Reports
§ 154.501 Refunds.
(a) Refund Obligation. (1) Any natural
gas company that collects rates or
charges pursuant to this chapter must
refund that portion of any increased

§ 154.501
rates or charges either found by the
Commission not to be justified, or approved for refund by the Commission as
part of a settlement, together with interest as required in paragraph (d) of
this section. The refund plus interest
must be distributed as specified in the
Commission order requiring or approving the refund, or if no date is specified, within 60 days of a final order. For
purposes of this paragraph, a final
order is an order no longer subject to
rehearing. The pipeline is not required
to make any refund until it has collected the refundable money through
its rates.
(2) Any natural gas company must
refund to its jurisdictional customers
the jurisdictional portion of any refund
it receives which is required by prior
Commission order to be flowed through
to its jurisdictional customers or represents the refund of an amount previously included in a filing under
§ 154.403 and charged and collected from
jurisdictional customers within thirty
days of receipt or other time period established by the Commission or as established in the pipeline’s tariff.
(b) Costs of Refunding. Any natural
gas company required to make refunds
pursuant to this section must bear all
costs of such refunding.
(c) Supplier Refunds. The jurisdictional portion of supplier refunds (including interest received), applicable
to periods in which a purchased gas adjustment clause was in effect, must be
flowed through to the natural gas company’s jurisdictional gas sales customers during that period with interest
as computed in paragraph (d) of this
section.
(d) Interest on Refunds. Interest on
the refund balance must be computed
from the date of collection from the
customer until the date refunds are
made as follows:
(1) At an average prime rate for each
calendar quarter on all excessive rates
or charges held (including all interest
applicable to such rates and charges)
on or after October 1, 1979. The applicable average prime rate for each calendar quarter must be the arithmetic
mean, to the nearest one-hundredth of
one percent, of the prime rate values

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lpowell on DSK54DXVN1OFR with $$_JOB

§ 154.502

18 CFR Ch. I (4–1–16 Edition)

published in the Federal Reserve Bulletin, or in the Federal Reserve’s ‘‘Selected Interest Rates’’ (Statistical Release G, 13), for the fourth, third, and
second months preceding the first
month of the calendar quarter.
(2) The interest required to be paid
under paragraph (d)(1) of this section
must be compounded quarterly.
(3) The refund balance must be either:
(i) The revenues resulting from the
collection of the portion of any increased rates or charges found by the
Commission not to be justified; or
(ii) An amount agreed upon in a settlement approved by the Commission;
or
(iii) The jurisdictional portion of a
refund the natural gas company receives.
(e) Unless otherwise provided by the
order, settlement or tariff provision requiring the refund, the natural gas
company must file a report of refunds,
within 30 days of the date the refund
was made, which complies with § 154.502
and includes the following:
(1) Workpapers and a narrative sufficient to show how the refunds for jurisdictional services were calculated;
(2) Workpapers and a narrative sufficient to determine the origin of the refund, including step-by-step calculations showing the derivation of the refund amount described in paragraph
(d)(3) of this section, if necessary;
(3) References to any publicly available sources which confirm the rates,
quantities, or costs, which are used to
calculate the refund balance or which
confirm the refund amount itself. If the
rate, quantity, cost or refund does not
directly tie to the source, a workpaper
must be included to show the reconciliation between the rate, quantity, cost,
or refund in the natural gas company’s
report and the corresponding rate,
quantity, cost or refund in the source
document;
(4) Workpapers showing the calculation of interest on a monthly basis, including how the carrying charges were
compounded quarterly;
(5) Workpapers and a narrative explaining how the refund was allocated
to each jurisdictional customer. Where
the numbers used to support the allocation are publicly available, a ref-

erence to the source must be included.
Where the allocation methodology has
been approved previously, a reference
to the order or tariff provision approving the allocation methodology must
be included.
(6) A letter of transmittal containing:
(i) A list of the material enclosed;
(ii) The name and telephone number
of a company official who can answer
questions regarding the filing;
(iii) A statement of the date the refund was disbursed;
(iv) A reference to the authority by
which the refund is made, including the
specific subpart of these regulations,
an order of the Commission, a provision of the company’s tariff, or any
other appropriate authority. If a Commission order is referenced, include the
citation to the FERC Reports, the date
of issuance, and the docket number;
(v) Any requests for waiver. Requests
must include a reference to the specific
section of the statute, regulations, or
the company’s tariff from which waiver
is sought, and a justification for the
waiver.
(7) A certification of service to all affected customers and interested state
commissions.
(f) Each report filed under paragraph
(e) of this section must be posted no
later than the date of filing. Each report must be posted to all recipients of
a share of the refund and all state commissions whose jurisdiction includes
the location of any recipient of a refund share that have made a standing
request for such full report.
(g) Recipients of refunds and state
commissions that have not made a
standing request for such full report
shall receive an abbreviated report
consisting of the items listed in
§ 154.501 (e)(5) and (e)(6).
[Order 582, 60 FR 52996, Oct. 11, 1995, as
amended by Order 582–A, 61 FR 9629, Mar. 11,
1996]

§ 154.502 Reports.
(a) When the natural gas company is
required, either by a Commission order
or as a part of a settlement in a proceeding initiated under this part 154 or
part 284 of this chapter, to make a report on a periodic basis, details about
the nature and contents of the report

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