Current through Register Vol. 30, No. 52, December 27, 2024
A. Utility
responsibility
1. Each utility shall be
responsible for the safe transmission and distribution of electricity until it
passes the point of delivery to the customer.
2. The entity having control of the meter
shall be responsible for maintaining in safe operating condition all meters,
equipment, and fixtures installed on the customer's premises by the entity for
the purposes of delivering electric service to the customer.
3. The Utility Distribution Company may, at
its option, refuse service until the customer has obtained all required permits
and inspections indicating that the customer's facilities comply with local
construction and safety standards.
B. Customer responsibility
1. Each customer shall be responsible for
maintaining all customer facilities on the customer's side of the point of
delivery in safe operating condition.
2. Each customer shall be responsible for
safeguarding all utility property installed in or on the customer's premises
for the purpose of supplying utility service to that customer.
3. Each customer shall exercise all
reasonable care to prevent loss or damage to utility property, excluding
ordinary wear and tear. The customer shall be responsible for loss of or damage
to utility property on the customer's premises arising from neglect,
carelessness, or misuse and shall reimburse the utility for the cost of
necessary repairs or replacements.
4. Each customer shall be responsible for
payment for any equipment damage and estimated unmetered usage resulting from
unauthorized breaking of seals, interfering, tampering, or bypassing the
utility meter.
5. Each customer
shall be responsible for notifying the utility of any equipment failure
identified in the utility's equipment.
C. Continuity of service. Each utility shall
make reasonable efforts to supply a satisfactory and continuous level of
service. However, no utility shall be responsible for any damage or claim of
damage attributable to any interruption or discontinuation of service resulting
from:
1. Any cause against which the utility
could not have reasonably foreseen or made provision for, that is, force
majeure.
2. Intentional service
interruptions to make repairs or perform routine maintenance.
3. Curtailment.
D. Service interruptions
1. Each utility shall make reasonable efforts
to reestablish service within the shortest possible time when service
interruptions occur.
2. Each
utility shall make reasonable provisions to meet emergencies resulting from
failure of service, and each utility shall issue instructions to its employees
covering procedures to be followed in the event of emergency in order to
prevent or mitigate interruption or impairment of service.
3. In the event of a national emergency or
local disaster resulting in disruption of normal service, the utility may, in
the public interest, interrupt service to other customers to provide necessary
service to civil defense or other emergency service agencies on a temporary
basis until normal service to these agencies can be restored.
4. When a utility plans to interrupt service
for more than four hours to perform necessary repairs or maintenance, the
utility shall attempt to inform affected customers and the Commission's
Consumer Services Section, at least 48 hours in advance, of the scheduled date
and time and of the estimated duration of the service interruption. A utility
shall complete repairs in the shortest possible time to minimize the
inconvenience to the customers of the utility.
5. A utility shall notify the Commission's
Consumer Services Section of any interruption in service affecting a
significant portion of a utility's system, as follows:
a. By telephone or by submitting a Service
Interruption Report Form through the Commission's website, as soon as
practicable after a representative of the utility becomes aware of the
interruption; and
b. If the initial
notice is made by telephone, by submitting a follow-up written report to the
Commission's Consumer Services Section within 24 hours after the initial
notice.
6. A utility's
notification made under subsection (D)(5) shall include at least the following:
a. The names of the utility and of the
utility representative making the report,
b. The telephone number of the utility
representative,
c. The locations
and number of customer connections affected by the service
interruption,
d. The substations
and feeders involved in the service interruption,
e. The date and start and end times of the
service interruption,
f. The cause
of the service interruption.
7. For purposes of subsection (D)(5), an
"interruption in service affecting a significant portion of a utility's system"
means:
a. A service interruption of 1,000
customer hours or more for a utility with more than 1,000,000 customer
connections,
b. A service
interruption of 500 customer hours or more for a utility with 400,000 to
1,000,000 customer connections, and
c. A service interruption of 100 customer
hours or more for a utility with fewer than 400,000 customer
connections.
E. Curtailment. Each utility shall file with
the Commission, through Docket Control, as a part of its general tariffs a
procedural plan for handling severe supply shortages or service curtailments.
The plan shall provide for equitable treatment of individual customer classes
in the most reasonable and effective manner given the existing circumstances.
When the availability of service is so restricted that the reduction of service
on a proportionate basis to all customer classes will not maintain the
integrity of the total system, the utility shall develop procedures to curtail
service giving service priority to those customers and customer classes where
health, safety and welfare would be adversely affected.
F. Construction standard and safety
1. Each utility shall construct all
facilities in accordance with the provisions of Institute of Electrical and
Electronic Engineers, Inc., Pub. No. C2-2007, The National Electrical Safety
Code (2007), which is incorporated by reference in
R14-2-207(E)(3)(c),
and American Society of Mechanical Engineers, Pub. No. ANSI/ASME B31.1-2007,
Power Piping (2007), including no future editions or amendments, which is
incorporated by reference, on file with the Commission, and published by and
available from the American Society of Mechanical Engineers, 3 Park Avenue, New
York, New York 10016, and through
http://catalog.asme.org.
2. Each utility shall adopt a standard
alternating nominal voltage or standard alternating nominal voltages (as may be
required by its distribution system) for its entire service area or for each of
the several districts into which the system may be divided, which standard
voltage or voltages shall be stated in the rules and regulations of each
utility and shall be measured at the customer's service entrance. Each utility
shall, under normal operating conditions, maintain its standard voltage or
voltages within the limits of National Electrical Manufacturers Association,
Pub. No. ANSI C84.1-2006, American National Standard for Electric Power Systems
and Equipment-Voltage Ratings (60 Hertz) (2006), including no future editions
or amendments, which is incorporated by reference, on file with the Commission,
and published by and available from the National Electrical Manufacturers
Association, 1300 North 17th Street, Suite 1752, Rosslyn, Virginia 22209, and
through
http://www.nema.org.
The following
Section was amended under an exemption from the Attorney General approval
provisions of the Arizona Administrative Procedure Act (State ex. rel. Corbin
v. Arizona Corporation Commission, 174 Ariz. 216 848 P.2d 301 (App. 1992)), as
determined by the Corporation Commission. This exemption means that the rules
as amended were not approved by the Attorney
General.