North Dakota Administrative Code

Gas service furnished on standard rates or contracts furnished by a public utility shall not be resold or caused to be resold by any customer unless the customer is engaged in the business of distributing gas and has a contract to this effect approved by the commission, and has a…

1. Each utility shall file with the commission its scheduled rates, rules, regulations, and practices in accordance with the statutory requirements. 2. Each rate filing shall stipulate the classification of service and application thereto, date effective, and the particular rate …

Where more than one schedule of rates has been approved by the commission for the same class of service, it shall be the duty of the utility to advise the customer at the beginning of service of the rates and schedules which are available and typical bills for representative cons…

Each utility shall have the right to file additional rules and regulations or terms and conditions of service applicable to the service given by the utility. The additional rules and regulations or terms and conditions are to be subject to approval by the commission in the manner…

1. Definitions. For purposes of this section: a. "Advertising" means the commercial use, by a gas utility, of any media, including newspaper, printed matter, radio, and television, in order to transmit a message to a substantial number of members of the public or to the utility's…

1. As used in this section, the term "automatic adjustment clause" means a tariff provision that provides for increases or decreases, or both, without prior hearing, in rates reflecting increases or decreases, or both, in gas supply costs incurred by a natural gas utility. 2. An …

1. Schedules of rates and charges for the furnishing of electric service, and rules and regulations pertaining thereto, shall be filed with the commission by each utility. The provisions thereof shall be definite and so stated as to minimize ambiguity or the possibility of misint…

Superseded by section 69-09-02-02.1.

A utility shall: 1. Keep copies of its rate schedules, rules, and regulations on file in every office where payments are received. 2. Send a statement to each customer containing a clear and concise explanation of the existing rate schedule, and any rate schedule applied for, tha…

1. A utility shall not connect a customer for electric service until the customer has obtained all necessary permits from the proper authorities. Service may be denied to any customer for failure to comply with the applicable requirements of this chapter or with the service regul…

1. An electric utility may require an applicant for service to make a deposit sufficient to cover the estimated charge for furnishing service to the customer for a sixty-day period. A receipt showing the amount of the deposit, the date the deposit was made, and the depositor's na…

Superseded by section 69-09-02-05.1. 4

1. A utility may disconnect service if the customer is delinquent in payment for services rendered. However, no utility shall discontinue service to a customer for failure to pay for such service until the utility shall first have given the customer notice of its intention to dis…

1. An electric public utility is responsible for ensuring reliable service. 2. Each utility shall make every reasonable effort to prevent interruptions of service, and when such interruptions occur shall endeavor to reestablish service within the shortest possible time. Whenever …

1. It shall be the obligation of each utility to make reasonable extensions of its lines and services to new customers within any area in which it is authorized to serve. 2. Each utility shall file with the commission its rules for extending service to new customers, and shall fi…

1. Temporary service is defined as service to circuses, carnivals, traveling shows, construction projects, and all other purposes which from their very nature evidently will be of short duration. 2. A customer taking temporary service shall pay the regular rates applicable to the…

Each utility shall promptly investigate and keep a record of written complaints received from its customers in regard to safety, service, or operation of its system. The record shall show the name and address of the complainant, the date and nature of the complaint, and its dispo…

1. Readings of all meters used for determining charges to customers shall be made each month. The term "month" means the period between any two consecutive regular meter reading dates, which shall be as nearly as practicable at thirty-day intervals. The meter reading date may be …

1. Bills for electric service shall be rendered monthly, unless otherwise authorized by the commission, or unless service is rendered for a period of less than a month. The term "month" as used for billing purposes means the period between any two consecutive regular meter readin…

1. Whenever a watt-hour meter is found upon a test made at the request of the customer to have an average error of more than two percent, or a demand meter is found to have an error of more than the allowable limits specified in these rules, an adjustment of bills for service sha…

Application for refund of any payment to a utility claimed to be in excess of established rates schedules, or rules and regulations pertaining thereto, shall be made within six years from the date of payment. A utility may not retroactively bill a customer a deficiency charge for…

1. Residential service is defined as service for general household purposes in space occupied as living quarters, such as single private residences, single apartments, fraternity houses and sorority houses, and for garages, or other auxiliary buildings on the same premises used b…

Electric service furnished by a public utility under established rate schedules shall not be resold or submetered by a customer unless the rate schedule under which the customer receives service specifically so provides. General Authority: NDCC 49-02-11 Law Implemented: NDCC 49-0…

1. All electrical energy sold to customers shall be measured by commercially acceptable measuring devices owned and maintained by the utility, except where it is impracticable to meter loads, such as multiple streetlighting, or temporary or special installations, in which case th…

1. Each utility furnishing alternating current service shall adopt a standard service frequency for its system. 2. Under normal operating conditions the utility shall maintain a frequency of not more than plus or minus three percent of standard frequency. 3. Variations in frequen…

1. Each utility furnishing electric service shall adopt a standard nominal voltage, or voltages, as may be required by the design of its distribution system for its entire constant voltage service area or for each of the several districts into which the distribution system, or sy…

1. Each utility shall employ at least one portable indicating voltmeter, and at least one device capable of producing recorded voltage measurements in continuous service at the plant, office, or on a customer's premises. Each utility shall make a sufficient number of voltage meas…

All portable indicating electrical instruments used for determining quality of service to customers or for billing purposes, such as voltmeters, ammeters, and wattmeters, shall be checked against suitable secondary reference standards at least once in each twelve months. If the p…

Watt-hour meters used for measuring electrical energy furnished to customers shall: 1. Be of proper design for the circuit on which they are used, be in good mechanical condition, and shall register correctly. 2. Not creep at "no load". A meter shall be considered to creep when t…

Demand meters, demand registers, or demand attachments used to measure electric service to customers shall: be in good mechanical and electrical condition; have proper constants, indicating scale, contact device, and resetting device; not register at no load; and be accurate with…

1. Meters which are not direct reading, and meters operating from instrument transformers, shall have the multiplier plainly marked on the dial of the instrument or other suitable location, and all charts taken from recording meters shall be marked with the date of the record, th…

1. Instrument transformers used in conjunction with metering equipment to measure electric energy furnished to customers shall be in proper mechanical condition and shall have electrical insulation satisfactory for the service on which used. 2. The accuracy of current transformer…

1. Each utility shall maintain sufficient laboratories, meter testing shops, secondary standards, instruments, and facilities to determine the accuracy of all types of meters and measuring devices used by the utility. 2. Each utility maintaining primary standards such as precisio…

1. The testing of any unit of metering equipment shall consist of a comparison of its accuracy with a standard of known accuracy. Meters shall be adjusted as closely as practicable to the condition of zero error, and may be checked for accuracy at the point where they are install…

Whenever a metering installation is found upon any test to be in error by more than two percent at any test load, the average error shall be determined as follows: 1. If the metering installation is used to measure a load which has practically constant characteristics, such as a …

1. Each utility shall keep a history record of each unit of metering equipment used for measuring service to customers showing date of purchase; utility's identification number; essential nameplate data; associated equipment, if any; dates of tests; results of all "as found" and …

1. Meters on customers premises shall be installed in locations free of conditions detrimental to the metering equipment, and where the metering equipment will not create a hazard, or be inconvenient for servicing or reading. Meters shall be located so that there is not less than…

The public has a paramount right to: 1. All forms of public service efficiently rendered at a reasonable cost. 2. Require that public service facilities shall be so constructed and maintained as not to constitute a hazard to life and property. 3. Establish regulations which will …

A utility contemplating new construction, or changes in construction or operating conditions of its facilities, should make every reasonable effort to avoid conflicts or interference with other public service facilities in situations or proximity. It shall be the duty of utilitie…

It shall be the duty of a utility to give advance notice (at least sixty days where practicable, but not less than twenty days) to other utilities serving in the same general territory of contemplated new 17 construction, or of changes in construction of operating conditions of i…

It shall be the duty of utilities, when coordination of facilities is necessary to avoid or mitigate conflicts or interference, to adopt, after a full consideration of all factors, the most practicable method which provides the greatest present and future economy and convenience …

In situations where communication lines and electric supply lines on the same right of way are not to occupy joint poles or where either kind of line is alone on a right of way, all communication lines should be placed on one side of the right of way and all electric supply lines…

The installation and maintenance of electric supply and communication lines shall conform to rules and regulations established in the 2017 edition of the National Electrical Safety Code which is adopted by reference. Copies of these regulations may be obtained from the public ser…

1. If the circumstances necessitate the raising or lowering of electric supply or communication lines to permit the movement of buildings or other bulky objects, the person in charge of such movement shall give the official in charge of the lines preliminary advance notice thereo…

Repealed effective April 1, 2013.

1. Definitions. For purposes of this section: a. "Advertising" means the commercial use, by an electric utility, of any media, including newspaper, printed matter, radio, and television, in order to transmit a message to a substantial number of members of the public or to the uti…

1. As used in this section, the term "automatic adjustment clause" means a tariff provision that provides for increases or decreases, or both, without prior hearing, in rates reflecting increases or decreases, or both, in energy costs incurred by an electric utility. 2. An automa…