2006 New York Code - Safe And Adequate Service; Just And Reasonable Charges; Unjust Discrimination; Unreasonable Preference; Protection Of Privacy.

 
    § 65. Safe  and  adequate service; just and reasonable charges; unjust
  discrimination; unreasonable preference; protection of privacy. 1. Every
  gas corporation, every electric corporation and every municipality shall
  furnish and provide such service, instrumentalities  and  facilities  as
  shall  be safe and adequate and in all respects just and reasonable. All
  charges  made  or  demanded  by  any  such  gas  corporation,   electric
  corporation or municipality for gas, electricity or any service rendered
  or  to  be  rendered,  shall  be  just  and reasonable and not more than
  allowed  by  law  or  by  order  of  the  commission.  Every  unjust  or
  unreasonable  charge  made  or demanded for gas, electricity or any such
  service, or in connection therewith, or in excess of that allowed by law
  or by the order of the commission is prohibited.
    2. No gas corporation,  electric  corporation  or  municipality  shall
  directly  or  indirectly, by any special rate, rebate, drawback or other
  device or method, charge, demand, collect or receive from any person  or
  corporation a greater or less compensation for gas or electricity or for
  any  service  rendered  or  to  be  rendered or in connection therewith,
  except as authorized in this chapter, than it charges, demands, collects
  or receives from any other person or corporation for doing  a  like  and
  contemporaneous   service   with  respect  thereto  under  the  same  or
  substantially similar circumstances or conditions.
    3. No gas corporation, electric corporation or municipality shall make
  or grant any undue  or  unreasonable  preference  or  advantage  to  any
  person,  corporation  or  locality,  or to any particular description of
  service in any respect whatsoever, or  subject  any  particular  person,
  corporation  or locality or any particular description of service to any
  undue  or  unreasonable  prejudice  or  disadvantage  in   any   respect
  whatsoever.
    4.  Nothing  in  this  chapter  shall  be  taken  to  prohibit  a  gas
  corporation or electric corporation from establishing  a  sliding  scale
  for  a  fixed  period  for  the automatic adjustment or charges for gas,
  electricity or any service rendered or to be rendered and the  dividends
  to  be  paid  to  stockholders  of  such  gas  corporation  or  electric
  corporation, provided that the sliding scale shall first have been filed
  with and approved by the commission; but  nothing  in  this  subdivision
  shall  operate  to  prevent  the commission after the expiration of such
  fixed period from fixing proper, just and reasonable rates  and  charges
  to be made for service as authorized in this article.
    5.  Nothing  in  this  chapter  shall  be  taken  to  prohibit  a  gas
  corporation or electrical corporation from establishing  classifications
  of service based upon the quantity used, the time when used, the purpose
  for  which  used,  the  duration  of  use  or  upon any other reasonable
  consideration, and providing schedules of just and reasonable  graduated
  rates  applicable  thereto.  No  such  classification, schedule, rate or
  charge shall be lawful unless it shall be filed with and approved by the
  commission, and every such  classification,  rate  or  charge  shall  be
  subject to change, alteration and modification by the commission.
    6.  Service charges prohibited. Every gas corporation shall charge for
  gas supplied a fair and reasonable price. No such corporation shall make
  or  impose  an  additional  charge  or  fee  for  service  or  for   the
  installation of apparatus or the use of apparatus installed, except that
  a charge may be made:
    (a)   where   entry,   inspection  or  examination  as  authorized  by
  subdivision nine of this section is denied;
    (b) for reconnecting the service to a person  or  corporation  if  the
  service  to  such  person or corporation was disconnected, in accordance
  with  applicable  legal  requirements,  for  non-payment  of  bills  for
  service; or
    (b-1) for expenses reasonably incurred as determined by the commission
  in  cases  of  meter tampering and theft of service. Such expenses shall
  include, but not be limited to, the cost of investigating, repairing and
  replacing meters  and  pipes,  and  the  cost  of  moving  a  meter  and
  installing it in a secure location.
    (c)  for a remote meter reading device upon the request and consent of
  the customer.
    7. No gas corporation or electric corporation shall sell or offer  for
  sale any list of names of its customers.
    8.  Inspection  of transmission pipelines conveying natural gas. Every
  gas corporation transmitting natural gas  under  permits  or  franchises
  permitting  the laying or maintaining of pipelines conveying natural gas
  shall conduct a leak detection inspection using leak detection equipment
  or employing a visual inspection of such transmission pipelines annually
  or more frequently when ordered by the commission. A written  report  of
  every such inspection shall be made available to the commission.
    9.  Buildings  may  be  entered  for the examination of meters, pipes,
  fittings, wires  and  works.  (a)  Any  officer  or  agent  of  any  gas
  corporation,  electric corporation or municipality for that purpose duly
  appointed  and  authorized  by  the  corporation,  upon   exhibiting   a
  photo-identification  badge  and  a  written  authority  signed  by  the
  president or vice-president and secretary or assistant secretary of  the
  corporation,  or  by the mayor or clerk of a municipal corporation or by
  the chairman and secretary of a municipal board in control of  a  public
  utility,  may  enter, at all reasonable times, any store, building, room
  or place supplied  with  gas,  electricity  or  water  by  such  utility
  corporation  or municipality for the purpose of inspecting and examining
  the meters, pipes, fittings, wires and works for supplying or regulating
  the supply of gas or electricity and of ascertaining the quantity of gas
  or electricity supplied.
    (b) If any person, at any time, directly or indirectly, shall  prevent
  or  hinder any such officer or agent from so entering any such premises,
  or from making any such inspection  or  examination  at  any  reasonable
  time,  he  or  she  shall forfeit to the corporation or municipality one
  hundred dollars for every such offense.
    10. (a) Notwithstanding any other provision of law, in any case  where
  electric  corporations  are permitted incremental seasonal differentials
  in rates or charges, such differentials shall  not  be  imposed  in  any
  month  upon  any  residential  customer  for the first two hundred fifty
  kilowatt hours used by such customer in such month;  provided,  however,
  that  the  commission  may  promulgate rules to permit the imposition of
  such seasonal differentials where a customer  requests  a  special  rate
  that  may  include  a  seasonal  differential  or where service is to be
  provided to a residential customer for a temporary period not to  exceed
  six months.
    (b) In any case where an electric corporation is permitted incremental
  seasonal  differentials  in rates or charges, such corporation shall, on
  or before such differential rates commence, inform any customer  subject
  to  such  differential  as  to the commencement and termination dates of
  such differential rates and permit such customer to read his  own  meter
  on such dates and forward the readings thereon to the corporation.
    * 11.  Civil  actions. (a) Every gas corporation, electric corporation
  or municipality furnishing utility service may initiate a  civil  action
  to  collect a civil penalty against a user of non-residential service in
  accordance with this subdivision. Upon a showing in such action  that  a
  user  of  non-residential service has knowingly accepted or received the
  use and benefit of gas or electric service which has been prevented from
  being properly registered by a meter provided therefor, the utility  may
  be  granted  a  civil  penalty,  in  addition to the value of the unpaid
  service, in an amount which the court in its discretion shall deem to be
  just and reasonable, which in no event shall be more  than  three  times
  the retail value of the gas or electric service accepted or received. In
  any  action  under  this  subdivision,  proof  that  a  meter  has  been
  intentionally  prevented  from  properly  registering  gas  or  electric
  service  shall  be  prima  facie  proof that the user of non-residential
  service who accepts or receives the use and benefit of such service  has
  done  so  with  knowledge  of  the  condition  so  existing,  if the gas
  corporation, electric corporation or municipality  shall  first  present
  evidence that such person took possession of the benefitted premises and
  used the gas or electric service prior to the creation of the condition.
    (b)  For  the  purposes of this subdivision, a user of non-residential
  service shall be a person  benefitting  from  such  service  who  is  in
  possession of the premises to which the service is delivered.
    (c)  Any civil penalty recovered pursuant to this section in excess of
  the actual damages sustained by the utility shall be taken into  account
  by the public service commission in establishing future utility rates.
    * NB There are 2 sub 11's
    * 11. An electric corporation shall send annually to each residence it
  serves  a  form that may be used to notify the corporation that a person
  living in the residence uses a life support system. For the purposes  of
  this subdivision, life support systems shall include, but not be limited
  to,  hemodialysis equipment, respirators and apnea monitors. An electric
  corporation shall maintain a current list of customers who use such life
  support systems and include the  list  in  such  electric  corporation's
  system emergency plans.
    * NB There are 2 sub 11's