2019 South Carolina Code of Laws
Title 58 - Public Utilities, Services and Carriers
Chapter 27 - Electric Utilities And Electric Cooperatives
Section 58-27-845. Findings and enumeration of electrical utility customer rights.

(A) The General Assembly finds that there is a critical need to:

(1) protect customers from rising utility costs;

(2) provide opportunities for customer measures to reduce or manage electrical consumption from electrical utilities in a manner that contributes to reductions in utility peak electrical demand and other drivers of electrical utility costs; and

(3) equip customers with the information and ability to manage their electric bills.

(B) Every customer of an electrical utility has the right to a rate schedule that offers the customer a reasonable opportunity to employ such energy and cost-saving measures as energy efficiency, demand response, or onsite distributed energy resources in order to reduce consumption of electricity from the electrical utility's grid and to reduce electrical utility costs.

(C) In fixing just and reasonable utility rates pursuant to Section 58-3-140 and Section 58-27-810, the commission shall consider whether rates are designed to discourage the wasteful use of public utility services while promoting all use that is economically justified in view of the relationships between costs incurred and benefits received, and that no one class of customers are unduly burdening another, and that each customer class pays, as close as practicable, the cost of providing service to them.

(D) For each class of service, the commission must ensure that each electrical utility offers to each class of service a minimum of one reasonable rate option that aligns the customer's ability to achieve bill savings with long-term reductions in the overall cost the electrical utility will incur in providing electric service, including, but not limited to, time-variant pricing structures.

(E) Every customer of an electrical utility has a right to obtain their own electric usage data in a machine-readable, accessible format to the extent such is readily available. Electrical utilities shall allow customers an electronic means to assent to share the customer's energy usage data with a third-party vendor designated by the customer.

HISTORY: 2019 Act No. 62 (H.3659), Section 2, eff May 16, 2019.