North Carolina Administrative Code
Title 04 - COMMERCE
Chapter 11 - UTILITIES COMMISSION
Chapter 25 - HIRE NORTH CAROLINA, RESIDENT CONTRACTOR UTILIZATION
Section 11 R25-01 - PURPOSE; APPLICABILITY; DEFINITIONS
Current through Register Vol. 39, No. 6, September 16, 2024
(a) Purpose. - For the purpose of promoting economic development, creating jobs, and improving the communities served by the utilities, the Commission urges utilities to maximize, consistent with law, the use of resident contractors for utility projects undertaken in the State of North Carolina. This rule shall serve as a tool to encourage and measure utility utilization of North Carolina resident contractors, subcontractors, vendors and businesses, including women- and minority-owned businesses. This rule is created to foster utility engagement with potential North Carolina contractors, providing ways to inform North Carolina companies of business opportunities. However, this rule shall not be interpreted to supersede any state statute, and nothing in this rule shall be construed to prevent a utility from choosing the lowest or best bidder for any project, or interfere with the mandate to serve the ratepayers or adequately respond to emergencies or support outages.
(b) Applicability. - All contracts for construction, extension and/or repair of facilities or other utility projects located in North Carolina in excess of $700,000.00 solicited by or on the behalf of any utility on or after July 1, 2020, shall be governed by this rule; provided, however, this rule shall not apply to planned or unplanned outage work, and nothing contained herein shall prohibit any utility from performing services covered by this rule with its own regularly-employed workforce.
(c) Definitions. - As used in this rule, the following definitions shall apply:
NCUC Docket No. M-100, Sub 154, 6/18/19.