Chapter 164

Section 69W. (a) An owner or proponent of a small clean energy infrastructure facility that has received a final decision on, or a constructive approval of, a consolidated permit application from a local government, as defined in section 21 of chapter 25A, or other parties substa…

Section 70. A gas company may, with the written consent of the aldermen or the selectmen, dig up and open the ground in any of the streets, lanes and highways of a town, so far as necessary to accomplish the objects of said corporation; but such consent shall not affect the right…

Section 70A. Any gas company desiring to lay a main for the transmission of gas which will of necessity pass through one or more cities or towns to connect the termini of such main, whose petition for the location necessary for such main has been refused, or has not been granted …

Section 71. A corporation subject to this chapter may, as provided in chapter one hundred and sixty-six, construct lines for the transmission of electricity. Nothing in this section shall prohibit a corporation that is not subject to this chapter from constructing lines for the t…

Section 72. (a) Any electric company, distribution company, generation company, or transmission company or any other entity providing or seeking to provide transmission service may petition the department for authority to construct and use or to continue to use as constructed or …

Section 72A. The department may upon petition authorize an electric company to enter upon lands of any person or corporation for the purpose of making a survey preliminary to eminent domain proceedings. The department shall give notice of the authorization granted, by registered …

Section 73. A corporation subject to this chapter, to the extent that it is authorized to make, sell, transmit or distribute gas or electricity, or both, may, for the purposes of such sale, transmission, or distribution, lay, erect and maintain pipes, wires, mains and conduits un…

Section 74. If a person injured in his person or property by a defect in a public way caused by the operations of a corporation subject to this chapter, in laying down or repairing its pipes, or in laying, erecting, maintaining or repairing its lines of wires, or in otherwise obs…

Section 75. The aldermen or selectmen may regulate, restrict and control all acts and doings of a corporation subject to this chapter which may in any manner affect the health, safety, convenience or property of the inhabitants of their towns.

Section 75A. No gas company or municipality distributing gas shall install or replace a meter measuring gas supplied to any premises except in accordance with regulations prescribed by the department for preventing or retarding the escape of gas in case of fire. Said regulations …

Section 75B. Any person, partnership, corporation or any other legal entity, organized under the laws of the commonwealth which shall desire to construct and operate a natural gas pipeline situated wholly within the commonwealth may qualify to do business within the commonwealth …

Section 75C. Any natural gas pipe line company may petition the department for the right to exercise the power of eminent domain under chapter seventy-nine. It shall file with such petition a general description of such pipe line and a map or plan thereof showing the rights of wa…

Section 75D. The provisions of section seventy-two A shall be applicable to natural gas pipe line companies.

Section 75E. Natural gas pipe line companies shall be subject to such reasonable rules and regulations as the department may prescribe or adopt pertaining to the construction and operation of such pipe lines for the purpose of insuring the safe operation thereof; provided, howeve…

Section 75F. Any natural gas pipe line company which lays pipes or other underground equipment or structures, or repairs or alters the same, on any land on which it does not have a fee or a binding agreement with the landowner, shall within sixty days after laying such pipes, equ…

Section 75G. Any natural gas pipe line company which lays pipes or other underground equipment or structures on any land on which it does not have a fee, shall, within sixty days after laying such pipe, equipment or structure, mark on the land, in such manner as not to interfere …

Section 75H. A person, partnership, corporation or any other legal entity which intends to construct a natural gas pipeline within this state and has filed for a certificate of public convenience and necessity to be issued under chapter 15B of the United States Code which may be …

Section 76. The department shall have the general supervision of all gas and electric companies and shall make all necessary examination and inquiries and keep itself informed as to the condition of the respective properties owned by such corporations and the manner in which they…

Section 76A. The department shall have the general supervision of every affiliated company, as defined in section eighty-five, with respect to all relations, transactions and dealings, direct or indirect, with the gas or electric company with which it is affiliated, which affect …

Section 76B. Any person or municipality laying out or constructing a street, place or way, except a residential driveway, over, across or along a high pressure gas main operating at pressures in excess of two hundred pounds per square inch gauge, shall comply with the provisions …

Section 76C. The department may establish from time to time such reasonable rules and regulations consistent with this chapter as may be necessary to carry out the administration thereof.

Section 76D. All natural gas pipeline companies, cable television companies, steam distribution companies and public utility companies, as defined in section three of chapter twenty-five, shall create, participate in and be responsible for the administration of a utility undergro…

Section 77. The department shall make an annual report of its doings under this chapter, with such suggestions as to the condition of affairs or conduct of corporations and companies subject to this chapter as may be appropriate, with such abstracts of the returns required by sec…

Section 78. If any electric, gas, generation, transmission, or distribution company, or any supplier violates or fails to comply with the provisions of law, or violates or fails to comply with any lawful order of the department, the department shall give written notice thereof to…

Section 79. The supreme judicial or superior court shall have jurisdiction in equity, upon application of the department, to enforce its lawful orders and all laws relative to cities and towns engaged in the manufacture and sale or distribution and sale of electricity or gas, gen…

Section 8. A corporation subject to this chapter may authorize, at a meeting duly called for the purpose, an amendment of its articles of organization by vote of the majority of each class of stock outstanding and entitled to vote thereon, effecting any one or more of the followi…

Section 80. Gas and electric companies shall have an office in a town where their works are located and, unless otherwise authorized by the department, shall keep in said office all books and papers required by law to be kept within the commonwealth, and also such books as may be…

Section 81. Gas and electric companies or persons engaged in the manufacture and sale or distribution of gas or electricity shall keep their books and accounts in a form to be prescribed by the department, and the accounts shall be closed annually, so that a balance sheet can be …

Section 82. Gas and electric companies and manufacturing companies or persons engaged in the manufacture or sale of gas or electricity shall keep such records of their work at their manufacturing station, and in respect to their distributing plant, and in such form as the departm…

Section 83. Gas and electric companies and manufacturing companies and persons engaged in the manufacture and sale or distribution and sale of gas or electricity shall annually, on or before such date as the department fixes, make to the department, in a form prescribed by it, a …

Section 84. Each such gas or electric company or manufacturing company or person neglecting to make the annual return required by the preceding section shall, for the first fifteen days or portion thereof during which such neglect continues, forfeit five dollars a day; for the se…

Section 84A. Gas and electric companies and manufacturing companies and persons engaged in the manufacture and sale or distribution and sale of gas or electricity shall file with the department, with their annual returns required under section eighty-three, a condensed return of …

Section 85. The officers and employees of the department may be authorized by it to examine the books, contracts, records, documents and memoranda or the physical property of any company subject to this chapter, and of any affiliated company with respect to any relations, transac…

Section 85A. A gas or electric company that has, prior to the effective date of this section, entered into or shall thereafter enter into any contract with an affiliated company as defined in section eighty-five, for the payment of any fees, salaries, commissions or percentages f…

Section 85B. (a) Each electric distribution, transmission and natural gas distribution company conducting business in the commonwealth shall annually, on or before May 15, submit to the department an emergency response plan for review and approval. The emergency response plan sha…

Section 86. In a town where a gas company exists in active operation, or where a person owns or operates works for the manufacture and sale of gas, no other gas company, nor any other person, shall dig up and open the streets, lanes and highways of such town in order to lay gas p…

Section 87. In a town where a person is engaged in the manufacture, sale or distribution of electricity, no other person shall lay, erect, maintain or use, over or under the streets, lanes and highways of such town, any wires for the transmission of electricity except wires used …

Section 88. Any person aggrieved by the decision of the aldermen or selectmen, under either of the two preceding sections, may, within thirty days after notice of said decision, appeal therefrom to the department, which shall thereupon give due notice and hear all parties interes…

Section 89. A town which has duly acquired a municipal lighting plant and is authorized to supply gas or electricity in any other town shall have all the rights which a private corporation supplying gas or electricity in said other town would have under the three preceding sectio…

Section 8A. A corporation subject to this chapter may authorize, at a meeting duly called for the purpose, an amendment of its articles of organization, by vote of two-thirds of each class of stock outstanding and entitled to vote thereon, effecting any one or more of the followi…

Section 8B. Within sixty days after any meeting at which any amendment of the articles of organization has been adopted or within thirty days after any necessary approval by the department, whichever is later, articles of amendment, signed under the penalties of perjury by the pr…

Section 8C. Every corporation may authorize, at a meeting duly called for the purpose, by vote of a majority of each class of stock outstanding and entitled to vote thereon, a restatement of its articles of organization. The restated articles of organization may effect further am…

Section 8D. If doubts arise as to the legality of the organization of any corporation created by special charter for a purpose mentioned in this chapter, which is in the exercise of its franchise, or as to the regularity or sufficiency of the proceedings of any such corporation, …

Section 9. An electric company which owns or operates an hydro-electric plant may, subject to all laws governing the issue of capital stock by electric companies, issue preferred stock of one or more classes to such amount, not exceeding twice the amount of the general or common …

Section 90. In consenting to the laying, erecting, maintaining or using by an electric company, for the sole purpose of supplying electricity in bulk, of any wires for the transmission of electricity over or under streets, lanes and highways, as provided in section eighty-seven, …

Section 91. The supreme judicial or superior court shall have jurisdiction in equity, on application of the department or of the mayor of any city or the selectmen of any town where electricity is distributed and sold under the preceding section, to compel the observance and to r…

Section 92. On written petition of any person, having a residence or place of business in a town where a corporation is engaged in the manufacture, transmission or sale of gas or the distribution of electricity, aggrieved by its refusal or neglect to supply him with gas or electr…

Section 92A. On written petition of any person, corporation or municipality aggrieved by the refusal or neglect to supply gas in bulk at reasonable rates by any person, corporation or municipality engaged, subject to the provisions of this chapter, in the manufacture, transmissio…

Section 92B. (a) The department shall direct each electric company to develop an electric-sector modernization plan to proactively upgrade the distribution and, where applicable, transmission systems to: (i) improve grid reliability, communications and resiliency; (ii) enable inc…

Section 92C. (a) There shall be a Grid Modernization Advisory Council to consist of the commissioner of energy resources, or a designee, who shall serve as chair; the attorney general, or a designee; the executive director of the Massachusetts clean energy technology center, or a…