16 U.S.C. § 824e : US Code - Section 824E: Power of Commission to fix rates and charges; determination of cost of production or transmission

Search 16 U.S.C. § 824e : US Code - Section 824E: Power of Commission to fix rates and charges; determination of cost of production or transmission

(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 affected 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.