Current through all regulations passed and filed through September 16, 2024
(A) Service
provided by a gas or natural gas company shall be metered, except where it is
impractical to meter the gas usage, such as in street lighting and temporary or
special installations. The usage in such exceptions may be calculated or billed
in accordance with an approved tariff on file with the commission.
(B) A customer's usage shall be metered by
commercially acceptable measuring devices.
(C) Gas or natural gas company
authorized agents
shall have
the right of access to metering equipment .
(D) Meter test at customer's request.
(1) Upon
request by a customer, the company shall test its meter to verify its
compliance with section
4933.09 of the Revised Code,
within thirty business days after the date of the request.
(2) The customer or the customer's
representative has the right to be present when the meter test is performed at
the customer's request.
(3) A written explanation of the test results
shall be provided to the customer within ten business days of the completed
test.
(4) Each company shall notify
the customer of applicable tariff charges prior
to the test.
(5) If
the accuracy of the meter is found to be outside the tolerances specified in
section 4933.09 of the Revised Code, the
gas or natural gas company shall do all of the following:
(a) Not charge a fee or recover any testing
expenses from the customer.
(b)
Provide a properly functioning meter without charge to the customer.
(c) Within thirty days, pay or credit, at the
customer's discretion, any overpayment to the customer, in accordance with one
of the following billing adjustments:
(i) When
the company or customer has reasonably established the approximate period of
meter inaccuracy, the overcharge shall be computed on the basis of a customer's
metered usage prior and/or subsequent to such period consistent with the rates
in effect during that period.
(ii)
When the company and customer cannot reasonably establish the approximate
period of meter inaccuracy, the overcharge period shall be determined to be the
most recent twelve months, or the period since the date of the most recent
meter test performed, whichever is less. The rates applicable shall be those in
effect during the period of inaccuracy in order to determine the appropriate
credit or refund.
Paragraph (D)(5) of this rule does not apply
in the event there has been either tampering with or unauthorized reconnection
of the meter, metering equipment, or other property of the gas or natural gas
company during the involved period of time, where such activity causes meter or
metering inaccuracies or no measurement of service.
(E) Each gas
or natural gas company shall identify each customer meter that it owns,
operates, or maintains, by serial or assigned meter numbers and/or letters,
placed in a conspicuous position on the meter.
(F) In accordance with the records retention
schedules set forth in the appendix to rule
4901:1-9-06 of the
Administrative Code, each gas or natural gas company shall
maintain all of the
meter test records for two years or until the next superseding test, whichever
is longer.
(G) Meter
reading.
(1) Each gas or natural gas company
shall obtain actual readings of its customer meters at least once every twelve
months. At a minimum, each company shall make reasonable attempts to obtain
actual readings of its customer meters every other month, except where the
customer and the company have agreed to other arrangements. Meter readings
taken by electronic means i.e., automated meter reading equipment)
are
considered actual readings. While remote meter index equipment readings may be
used by a company, they do not qualify as actual meter readings.
Once
operationally feasible, actual meter reads shall be performed by the company on
a monthly basis when automatic meter reading equipment is installed in a
specific geographic area of the company.
Adherence to the
procedures of a gas or natural gas company's plan, accepted
(2)
When a gas or natural
gas company has undercharged any residential customer as the result of a meter
or metering inaccuracy, billing problem, or other continuing problem under the
gas or natural gas company's control, the company may only bill the customer
for the amount of the unmetered gas rendered in the three hundred sixty-five
days immediately prior to the date the company remedies the meter inaccuracy.
Customers shall be notified by the gas or natural gas company of their right to
have twelve months to pay, in equal installments, any undercharge for unmetered
gas service.
(3) When a gas or
natural gas company has undercharged any small commercial customer as the
result of a meter or metering inaccuracy, billing problem, or other continuing
problem under the gas or natural gas company's control, unless the customer and
the company agree otherwise, the maximum portion of the undercharge that may be
billed to the small commercial customer in any billing month, based upon the
appropriate rates,
is determined by dividing the amount of the
undercharge by the number of months of undercharged service. The company may
only bill the customer for the amount of the unmetered gas rendered in the
thirty-six month period immediately prior to the date the company remedies the
meter inaccuracy. Each gas or natural gas company shall state the total amount
to be collected in the first bill under this rule. This paragraph
does
not affect the gas or natural gas company's recovery of regular monthly
charges.
(4) This rule
does not
apply in the event there has been either the tampering with or the unauthorized
reconnection of the meter, metering equipment, or other property of the gas or
natural gas company during the involved period of time, where such activity
causes meter or metering inaccuracies or no measurement of service.
(5) Upon the customer's request, and in
addition to the requirements of paragraph (G)(1) of this rule, the gas or
natural gas company shall provide two actual meter readings, without charge,
per calendar year. The customer may only request an actual meter reading,
without charge, if the customer's usage has been estimated for more than two of
the immediately preceding billing cycles consecutively or if the customer has
reasonable grounds to believe that the meter is malfunctioning. Nothing in the
preceding sentence is intended to limit a customer's ability to obtain a meter
reading prior to transferring service to a new retail natural gas supplier or
governmental aggregator as provided by paragraph (J) of rule
4901:1-29-06 of the
Administrative Code.
(6) Each gas
or natural gas company is required to do an actual meter reading at the
initiation and/or the termination of service if the meter has not been read
within the immediately preceding seventy days and access to the meter is
provided.
(7) If a gas or natural
gas company has read the meter within the immediately preceding seventy days,
it shall inform the customer, when the customer contacts the company to
initiate or terminate service, of the customer's right to have an actual meter
read at no charge to the customer.
(8) When a meter reading is scheduled through
a menu-driven, automated, interactive answering system that allows the customer
to interact electronically rather than through a live person, the gas or
natural gas company shall provide confirmation (e.g., order confirmation
number, written letter) to the customer by the following business day,
verifying the nature of the interaction and any appointment made.
(9) Where there is a landlord/tenant
relationship and neither the gas or natural gas company nor the customer has
access to the meter, the gas or natural gas company shall render notice by mail
to both the landlord, when the address is available, and the tenant,
summarizing its inability to obtain access to the meter for any of the
provisions of this rule.
