Connecticut Administrative Code
Title 16 - Public Service Companies
47a - Gas Code of Conduct
Section 16-47a-2 - General standards of conduct
Universal Citation: CT Reg of State Agencies 16-47a-2
Current through September 9, 2024
(a) Required Conduct.
Except as otherwise provided by or allowed under any federal or Connecticut law, under this Gas Code of Conduct or otherwise approved by the Department:
(1) All transfer prices
charged for assets, goods or services, including the use or transfer of
personnel, exchanged or shared between and among a gas company and its
affiliates, shall meet the requirements of section
16-47a-7(a)
of this Gas Code of Conduct, and be consistent with the Cost Allocation Manual
submitted to the Department pursuant to section
16-47a-9(b)(3)
of this Gas Code of Conduct;
(2) A
gas company shall refuse goods or services provided by an affiliate, including
a CSC, or other provider if the gas company determines that such goods or
services are inferior, overpriced or would be detrimental to its ability to
operate and maintain a safe gas system;
(3) A gas company shall have the burden of
proving that all goods and services provided to its affiliates have been
provided on the terms and conditions comparable to the most favorable terms and
conditions reasonably available to the market, which shall include a showing
upon the Department's request that such goods or services have been provided at
a price that is consistent with the requirements of the Gas Code of
Conduct;
(4) If any affiliate of a
gas company experiences a default on an obligation that is material to a gas
company or files for bankruptcy, and such bankruptcy is material to a gas
company, the gas company shall notify the Department in advance, if possible,
or as soon as possible, but not later than 10 days after such event;
and
(5) Except as otherwise
provided by any federal law or state statute, a gas company shall file notice
with the Department no later than 45 days after the transfer of any services,
functions, departments, employees, rights, obligations, assets, or liabilities
between the gas company and its affiliates that would have a material effect on
the gas company's public utility operations.
(b) Prohibited Conduct.
Except as otherwise provided by or allowed under any federal or Connecticut law, under this Gas Code of Conduct or otherwise approved by the Department:
(1) Cross-subsidies
involving a gas company and any of its affiliates are strictly prohibited. All
costs incurred by gas company personnel for or on behalf of an affiliate shall
be charged to the affiliate responsible for the costs;
(2) Except as allowed in subdivision (3) of
this subsection, a gas company shall not provide a financial advantage to any
affiliate. For purposes of the Gas Code of Conduct, a gas company shall be
deemed to provide a financial advantage to an affiliate if the gas company
engages in any affiliate purchase or sales transaction that does not meet the
requirements of section
16-47a-7(a)
of this Gas Code of Conduct;
(3)
Affiliate Financial Transactions. Except as otherwise provided in this Gas Code
of Conduct or in other applicable law or as otherwise approved by the
Department, a gas company shall not engage in any affiliate transaction in
which the gas company:
(A) provides to or
shares with any affiliate any financial resource or financial benefit,
including but not limited to any:
(i) loan,
extension of credit, guarantee or assumption of debt, indemnification, pledge
of collateral; or
(ii) encumbrance
of or restriction on the disposition of any gas company; or
(B) incurs any debt for purposes
of investing in, or otherwise supporting, any business other than the provision
of gas utility services in Connecticut as regulated by the Department. Nothing
in this section, however, shall prohibit a gas company from entering into money
pool arrangements with its affiliates;
(4) Neither a gas company nor its affiliates
may directly, or by implication, falsely and unfairly represent to a customer,
gas marketer or third-party that an advantage may accrue to a party through use
of the gas company's affiliates or subsidiary. Prohibited representations
include, but are not limited to, the following:
(A) The Department regulated services
provided by the gas company are of a superior quality when services are
purchased from the gas company's affiliates;
(B) The merchant services for natural gas are
being provided by the gas company when they are in fact being provided by an
affiliate;
(C) The natural gas
purchased from a gas marketer shall not be reliably delivered; and
(D) Natural gas must be purchased from an
affiliate to receive Department regulated services;
(5) Except as authorized by the Department, a
gas company shall not bill customers on behalf of an affiliate. In no
circumstance may a gas company include on customer bills any reference to or
information about any of its affiliates, or allow an affiliate to include
billing inserts or any marketing or promotional materials in the gas company's
bills to its customers without providing similar service to non-affiliates and
receive same and equal compensation from both the affiliates and
non-affiliates;
(6) A gas company
shall not give any preference to an affiliate or a customer of an affiliate in
providing regulated gas service, or conduct business in such a way as to
provide preferential service, information or treatment to an affiliate over
another entity at any time;
(7) A
gas company shall not seek to recover from its retail customers any costs that
exceed fair market value for any service provided to the gas company from its
affiliates;
(8) Neither a gas
company nor its affiliates may engage in any cost shifting, cross subsidies, or
anticompetitive behavior with affiliates;
(9) A gas company shall not condition or tie
the provision of regulated gas service to any other good or service on the
purchase of any other goods or services from any of its affiliates, or allow
any of its affiliates to condition the provision of any services on the
purchase of any other goods or services from the gas company;
(10) A gas company shall not offer discounts,
rebates, fee waivers, penalty waivers, or other special provisions for a tariff
service to an affiliate or a customer of an affiliate, unless the gas company
makes the offer available to all similarly situated persons, and makes the
offer in a manner designed to allow all an equal ability to utilize the
offering;
(11) A gas company shall
not provide sales leads to its affiliates;
(12) Neither a gas company nor its affiliates
may speak or appear to speak on behalf of one another in any and all contacts
or communications with customers or potential customers;
(13) Except as otherwise provided in the Gas
Code of Conduct, a gas company shall not acquire information on behalf of or to
provide to an affiliate;
(14) A gas
company shall not participate in any affiliated transactions which are not in
compliance with the Gas Code of Conduct, except as otherwise provided in §
16-47a-11 of
this Gas Code of Conduct; and
(15)
Neither a gas company nor its affiliates may utilize permitted communications
or take any other actions either directly or indirectly through a third party
to circumvent the Gas Code of Conduct.
(c) Nondiscrimination. Nondiscrimination standards under this subsection apply in conjunction with all the standards under the Gas Code of Conduct when a similar standard overlaps:
(1) A gas company's employees shall not
unduly discriminate against non-affiliated entities;
(2) A gas company shall not provide any
preference to an affiliate, nor to any customers of an affiliate, as compared
to non-affiliates or their customers, in responding to requests for services or
in providing services. No affiliates of a gas company shall represent to any
person or entity that the affiliates will receive any such
preference;
(3) A gas company shall
apply the provisions of its tariffs equally and in the same manner to every
customer or other entity whether such customer or other entity (A) is the gas
company's affiliate or non-affiliate, (B) is a customer of the gas company's
affiliate or non-affiliate, or (C) uses affiliated or nonaffiliated marketers
or brokers;
(4) A gas company shall
not give any customer using its affiliate's preference with respect to any
tariff provisions that provide discretionary waivers;
(5) A gas company shall process all similar
requests for gas services in the same timely manner, whether requested on
behalf of its affiliates or non-affiliates;
(6) A gas company shall uniformly enforce its
tariff provisions;
(7) A gas
company shall not, through a tariff provision or otherwise, give its marketing
affiliate and/or its customers any preference over a customer using a
nonaffiliated marketer in matters relating to transportation or curtailment
priority;
(8) No employees of a gas
company shall indicate, represent, or otherwise give the appearance to another
party that any affiliate of the gas company speaks on behalf of the gas
company, provided however, that this prohibition does not apply to employees of
an affiliate providing shared services to the gas company and its affiliates to
the extent explicitly provided for in an affiliate or service agreement. No
personnel of any affiliate of a gas company shall indicate, represent, or
otherwise give the appearance to another party that they speak on behalf of the
gas company;
(9) No employees of a
gas company or its affiliates shall indicate, represent, or otherwise give
appearance to another party that any advantage to that party with regard to gas
services exists as the result of that party dealing with the affiliate, as
compared with a non-affiliate;
(10)
A gas company shall not disclose or cause to be disclosed to its marketing
affiliate or any nonaffiliated marketer any information that it receives
through its processing of requests for or provision of gas services;
(11) A gas company shall not condition or
otherwise tie the provision or terms of any gas services or agreements
(including prearranged capacity release) for the release of interstate or
intrastate pipeline capacity to the purchasing of any goods or services from,
or the engagement in business of any kind with, any affiliate of a gas company;
and
(12) When an employee of a gas
company receives a request for information from or provided information to a
customer about goods or services available from an affiliate, the employee of
the gas company shall decline to provide such information.
(d) Transparency. A gas company shall not offer or sell un-tariffed distribution or gas assets or services to its affiliates without contemporaneously making sufficient offers thereof to the market pursuant to a method approved or prescribed by the Department. A gas company shall maintain a chronological log of these public disseminations. The chronological log shall be open for public inspection during normal business hours.
(e) Unlawful Affiliate Transactions. All affiliate transactions involving a gas company shall be subject to review by the Department in accordance with section 16-8c and section 16-47a(c) of the Connecticut General Statutes and shall be declared void if found to be unjust or unreasonable and made for the purpose or with the effect of concealing, transferring or dissipating the earnings of a gas company. All such affiliated costs and expenses shall be subject to being audited in accordance with section 16-8 of the Connecticut General Statutes and disallowed within the context of a general rate case in accordance with section 16-19 of the Connecticut General Statutes.
(f) Emergencies. Nothing in this Gas Code of Conduct shall prohibit a gas company from taking any actions necessary to ensure public safety and system reliability, or prohibit communications between a gas company and its affiliates necessary to restore gas company service or to prevent or respond to emergency conditions.
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