Massachusetts Statutes

Section 148. Any engineering plans or specifications for engineering work or services that could pose a material risk to public safety, as determined by the department pursuant to clause (l) of section 81R of chapter 112, developed by or on behalf of a gas company shall bear the …

Section 149. (a) For the purposes of this section, the following words shall have the following meanings unless the context clearly requires otherwise:— ''Director'', the director of the division of public participation. ''Division of public participation'', established in sectio…

Section 15. A gas or electric company, under the supervision of the department, selling, offering for sale or issuing, bonds, debentures, notes or other evidences of indebtedness, exclusive of stock, payable at periods of more than five years after the date thereof, shall invite …

Section 150. (a) For the purposes of this section, the following words shall have the following meanings unless the context clearly requires otherwise:— ''Advanced conductors'', any hardware technology that can conduct electricity across transmission and distribution lines and de…

Section 151. (a) For the purposes of this section, ''meter socket adapter'' shall mean an electronic device that is installed between a residential electric meter and the meter socket, for the purpose of facilitating the deployment of customer-owned or customer-leased technology.…

Section 15A. Except as otherwise provided in this section, a gas or electric company shall not issue or sell any bonds, debentures, notes or other evidences of indebtedness payable at periods of more than one year after the date thereof at less than the par value or face amount t…

Section 16. If, when the department approves an issue of new stock, bonds or other securities by a gas or electric company, it determines that the fair structural value of the plant and of the land and the fair value of the nuclear fuel, gas inventories or fossil fuel inventories…

Section 16A. If, when the department under this chapter approves an issue of stock, bonds, coupon notes or other evidences of indebtedness of a corporation, or passes upon the price, rates, charges or service of a corporation, it determines that the provision made by the corporat…

Section 17. A director, treasurer or other officer or agent of a gas or electric company who knowingly votes to authorize the issue of, or knowingly signs, certifies or issues, stock, bonds or other securities contrary to any provision of section fourteen or sixteen, or who knowi…

Section 17A. No gas or electric company shall, except in accordance with such rules and regulations as the department shall from time to time prescribe, loan its funds to, guarantee or endorse the indebtedness of, or invest its funds in the stock, bonds, certificates of participa…

Section 18. Except as otherwise provided in this section, shares of the capital stock of a gas or electric company shall be offered at such price, not less than par, as its directors may fix. The vote of the department, as provided in section fourteen, as to the amount of stock r…

Section 19. A gas or electric company may issue any unissued shares of its capital stock from time to time authorized under its articles of incorporation in such manner, at such times, upon such terms, and at such price, not less than par, except as otherwise authorized by the de…

Section 1A. (a) The department is hereby authorized and directed to require electric companies organized pursuant to the provisions of this chapter to accommodate retail access to generation services and choice of suppliers by retail customers, unless otherwise provided by this c…

Section 1B. (a) The department shall define service territories for each distribution company by March 1, 1998, based on the service territories actually served on July 1, 1997, and following to the extent possible municipal boundaries. After March 1, 1998, until terminated by ef…

Section 1C. Any marketing company formed by an electric company shall be in the form of an affiliate of the electric company and shall be separate from any generation, transmission, or distribution company affiliate of the electric company. The department shall promulgate standar…

Section 1D. Beginning January 1, 1998, all electric and gas bills sent to a retail customer shall be unbundled to separately reflect the rates charged for generation, transmission, and distribution services, as well as any other charges, as added pursuant to any provision of law,…

Section 1E. (a) The department is hereby authorized to promulgate rules and regulations to establish and require performance based rates for each distribution, transmission, and gas company organized and doing business in the commonwealth pursuant to the provisions of this chapte…

Section 1F. The department is hereby authorized and directed to require electric companies organized pursuant to this chapter to accommodate retail access to generation services and choice of suppliers by retail customers, unless otherwise provided by this chapter. The department…

Section 1G. (a)(1) The department shall, in accordance with the provisions of this section, identify and determine, upon application by a distribution company and the applicable electric company, those costs and categories of costs for generation-related assets, investments, and …

Section 1H. (a) As used in this section the following words shall, unless the context otherwise requires, have the following meanings:— ''Agency'', the Massachusetts Industrial Finance Agency, established pursuant to section 31 of chapter 23A. ''Authority'', the Massachusetts Hea…

Section 1I. Each investor-owned electric distribution, transmission, and natural gas distribution company shall file a report with the department by March first of each year comparing its performance during the previous calendar year to the department's service quality standards …

Section 1J. The department shall promulgate rules and regulations to establish standards of acceptable performance for emergency preparation and restoration of service for electric and gas distribution companies doing business in the commonwealth. The department shall levy a pena…

Section 1K. Any penalty levied by the department against an investor-owned electric distribution, transmission or natural gas distribution company for any violation of the department's standards of acceptable performance for emergency preparation and restoration of service for el…

Section 2. In construing sections 69G to 69O, inclusive, 70, 71, 74 to 83, inclusive, 92 to 95, inclusive, 103, 105, 106, 109, 112 to 114, inclusive, 116, 117, 119, 120, 121, 123 to 127, inclusive, unless the context otherwise requires, the terms ''corporation'', ''gas company'' …

Section 20. A corporation subject to this chapter shall not begin business until the whole amount of its capital stock, or such part thereof as may have been approved by the department, has been paid in and a certificate of that fact has been filed in accordance with section ten.…

Section 21. A corporation subject to this chapter shall not, except as otherwise expressly provided, transfer its franchise, lease its works or contract with any person, association or corporation to carry on its works, without the authority of the general court.

Section 22. All deposits of funds of corporations subject to this chapter shall be made by the officers thereof in national banks, duly chartered trust companies, savings banks, co-operative banks or federal savings and loan associations; but the foregoing provision shall not app…

Section 23. Stockholders may vote in person or by proxy. No proxy dated more than six months before the meeting named therein shall be valid and no proxy shall be valid after the final adjournment of such meeting. A proxy with respect to stock held in the name of two or more pers…

Section 24. (a) Whenever, with respect to any action to be taken by the stockholders of a corporation subject to this chapter, the articles of organization or by-laws require the vote or concurrence of the holders of all of the shares, or of any class or series thereof, or a grea…

Section 25. No person owning, holding or controlling shares of stock of any public service corporation shall use any name or title or other words that, in the opinion of the department, might lead the public to believe that such person is a public service corporation or that its …

Section 29. A duplicate of each certificate of change of officers filed pursuant to section fifty-three of chapter one hundred and fifty-six B with respect to a corporation subject to this chapter shall be filed forthwith in the office of the department.

Section 3. This chapter shall apply to gas and electric companies organized or chartered under any general or special laws applicable thereto, and to the respective officers and stockholders of such corporations.

Section 30. The department may, after notice and a public hearing, authorize a gas or electric company to carry on its business in any town in the commonwealth other than the town named in its agreement of association or charter, subject to sections eighty-six to eighty-eight, in…

Section 31. A manufacturing or other corporation having its place of business in a city or town where a gas company proposes to manufacture gas for light may hold not more than ten per cent of the capital stock of such gas company; provided, that the foregoing provisions shall no…

Section 33. The fees for filing the following certificates, documents and copies of votes required to be filed by corporations subject to this chapter with the state secretary shall be determined annually by the commissioner of administration under the provision of section three …

Section 33A. No gas or electric company regulated by the department under this chapter may recover from any ratepayer of such company any direct or indirect expenditure by such company for promotional or political advertising as defined in this section. For the purposes of this s…

Section 34. A town may, in accordance with this chapter, construct, purchase or lease, and maintain within its limits, one or more plants for the manufacture or distribution of gas or electricity or for the operation of a community antenna television system for municipal use or f…

Section 34A. (a) Any city or town receiving street lighting service from an electric company pursuant to a tariff which provides for the use by such municipality of lighting equipment owned by the electric company, such as lighting ballasts, fixtures, and other equipment necessar…

Section 34B. A distribution company or a telephone company engaging in the removal of an existing pole and the installation of a new pole in place thereof shall complete the transfer of wires, all repairs, and the removal of the existing pole from the site within 90 days from the…

Section 35. A city shall not acquire such a plant until authorized by a two thirds vote of its city council, or of a majority of the commissioners if the city government consists of a commission, passed in each of two consecutive municipal years and thereafter ratified by a major…

Section 36. A town shall not acquire such a plant until authorized by a two thirds vote, taken by ballot with the use of the voting list, at each of two town meetings called therefor and held at intervals of not less than two nor more than thirteen months. If the first of such vo…

Section 37. After a city or town has voted under section thirty-five or thirty-six, the city or town clerk shall forthwith transmit to the department a certified copy of so much of the records of the city council or of the town as relates to the result of the vote.

Section 38. If a city or town which has authorized the acquisition of such a plant subsequently votes to establish, purchase, reconstruct, extend or enlarge a plant, or to issue bonds, notes or certificates of indebtedness on account thereof, or to regulate the management or cond…

Section 39. A city or town clerk failing to comply with any provision of the two preceding sections shall forfeit not more than twenty-five dollars.

Section 4. The following sections of chapter one hundred and fifty-six B shall apply to corporations subject to this chapter: (a) Sections seven, nine, nine A, ten, fourteen, sixteen, seventeen, twenty, twenty-six, twenty-nine through forty, forty-two through fifty-nine, sixty-on…

Section 40. A city or town which has duly voted to acquire a municipal lighting plant may incur debt as provided in section eight of chapter forty-four for establishing, purchasing, extending, enlarging, reconstructing or making extraordinary repairs to such plant within the limi…