Title 39, Title 39 Utilities and Carriers

(a) The public utilities commission shall establish, administer, and promote an information accessibility service that includes: (1) A statewide telephone relay service and, through the competitive bidding process, contract for the administration and operation of such a relay sys…

Commissioners may at any time be removed from office by the governor for inefficiency, neglect of duty, or malfeasance in office, but no commissioner shall be removed from office without an opportunity to be heard, publicly before the governor and after being given notice in writ…

When the term of office of a commissioner shall expire, and he or she has participated in hearing all or a substantial part of the evidence in a proceeding pending before the commission, he or she shall remain a commissioner for the sole purpose of completing the hearing and deci…

(a) Preamble. For the past ten (10) years, the schools and libraries of Rhode Island have benefited from a regulatory agreement with Verizon and its predecessor companies that has provided up to two million dollars ($2,000,000) annually for support of telecommunications lines for…

(a) The commission shall amend its rules and regulations governing the termination of residential electric and gas service as set forth in 810-RICR-10-00-1, and any similar regulation of the commission, in order that the utility termination moratorium period shall mean the period…

(a) The commission shall have the powers of a court of record in the determination and adjudication of all matters over which it is given jurisdiction. It may make orders and render judgments and enforce the same by any suitable process issuable by the superior court. The commiss…

Two (2) commissioners shall constitute a quorum for the transaction of any business, except as provided in § 39-1-11. Meetings of the commission may be held at any time or place upon the call of any member, after a reasonable notice by mail or telephone to the other members, and …

The commission shall appoint an employee of the division as its clerk, who shall serve during its pleasure. The commissioners and clerk shall be sworn to the faithful discharge of the duties of their offices and, before entering upon their offices, shall file a certificate of the…

(a) Every public utility is required to furnish safe, reasonable, and adequate services and facilities. The rate, toll, or charge, or any joint rate made, exacted, demanded, or collected by any public utility for the conveyance or transportation of any persons or property, includ…

No public utility shall refuse to furnish services to new occupants at any premises on the grounds that the previous occupant has vacated the premises without paying the public utility for services furnished, provided that the service is not for the use or benefit of the previous…

(a) In addition to costs prohibited in § 39-1-27.4(b), no public utility distributing or providing heat, electricity, or water to or for the public shall include as part of its base rate any expenses for advertising, either direct or indirect, that promotes the use of its product…

No subscriber to a cellular telephone service shall be subject to an assessment of a late fee on a monthly billing unless the payment is at least thirty (30) days past the close of the billing period that is the subject of the statement. A cellular telephone operator shall not im…

(a) Electricity produced by cogeneration and small power production can be of benefit to the public as part of the total energy supply of the entire electric grid of the state or consumed by a cogenerator or small power producer. Subject to compliance with applicable rules govern…

The superior court may enforce compliance with the provisions of § 39-2-9 by writ of injunction or mandamus.

Every common carrier who shall refuse or neglect to receive and transport goods, wares, and merchandise in the manner as provided in this chapter shall be fined not less than fifty dollars ($50.00) nor more than five hundred dollars ($500).

Every common carrier who shall so neglect or refuse shall also be civilly liable to any person aggrieved for any injury sustained by him or her by reason of the carrier’s neglect or refusal.

Any blind or deaf person, who uses the services of a seeing-eye guide dog, or personal-assistance animal or a hearing-ear signal dog, clearly identified as such by a yellow harness and trained by a recognized training agency or school, may enter any public facility of any public …

(a) No utility shall interfere with, or delay the progress of work under any contract with the state department, agency, division, or board, for the construction, reconstruction, or improvements of any highway, street, road, railroad grade crossing, bridge, tunnel, underpass, ove…

(a) Whenever, in order to move a building to be used as affordable housing for low- and moderate-income persons for a period of not less than ten (10) years, a nonprofit housing development corporation desires that the pipes, mains, poles, wires, conduits, or fixtures of a public…

No person, firm, corporation, or other business entity shall install in any home or business establishment any appliance that operates by the use of consumption of a combustible gas unless a shutoff device approved by the division of public utilities and carriers controlling the …

Every person employed by a public utility company or nonregulated power producer doing business in this state whose job requires the person to enter homes or business establishments for the purpose of installing, repairing, servicing, meter reading, or other related activities, s…

(a) If any public utility or any agent or officer of a public utility, as defined in chapter 1 of this title, shall directly or indirectly, by any device whatsoever, or otherwise, charge, demand, collect, or receive from any person, firm, or corporation a greater or less compensa…

(a) A communications common carrier, as defined in § 12-5.1-1, shall disclose to the attorney general, or an assistant attorney general specially designated by the attorney general, or any chief of police, the director of the statewide fugitive task force, or the superintendent o…

(a) As used in this chapter: (1) “Electronic communication service” means any service that provides to its users the ability to send or receive wire or electronic communications. (2) “Foreign entities” means any entity that makes a contract or engages in a term of service agreeme…

Public utilities distributing electricity or providing telephone service, heat, or water, produced, transmitted, delivered, or furnished shall charge residential condominium occupants or residential condominium associations for such distribution service, heat, water, or telephone…

In addition to other dialing, where technically and economically feasible, a telecommunications public utility shall make available to users a seven-digit (7) dialing capability for completion of intrastate Rhode Island calls outside the local calling area, unless specifically di…

No gas company, as described in § 39-1-2(a)(20), shall allow employees to terminate, restore, or activate gas services unless those employees have gained relevant experience by working for a gas company at least two (2) years and have been properly trained in the safe termination…

(a) As used in this section: (1) “Customer” means the person who subscribes to telephone service from a telephone company or the person in whose name the telephone service is listed. (2) “Person” means any individual, partnership, corporation, limited-liability company, trust, es…

(a) As used in this section, “contact voltage” means and/or refers to a voltage resulting from abnormal power system conditions that may be present between two (2) conductive surfaces that can be simultaneously contacted by members of the general public and/or their animals. Cont…

Submission, approval, penalties for failure to file, and denial of recovery of service restoration costs for failure to implement emergency response plan. (a) Each electric distribution company and natural gas distribution company conducting business in the state shall, on or bef…

The division shall open a docket and establish standards of acceptable performance for emergency preparation and restoration of service for each investor-owned electric and gas distribution company doing business in the state. The division shall levy a penalty not to exceed one h…

Any penalty levied by the division against an investor-owned electric distribution or natural gas distribution company for any violation of the division’s standards of acceptable performance for emergency preparation and restoration of service for electric and gas distribution co…

(a) If any public utility shall make or give any undue or unreasonable preference or advantage to any particular person, firm, or corporation, or shall subject any particular person, firm, or corporation to any undue or unreasonable prejudice or disadvantage in any respect whatso…

It shall be unlawful for any person, firm, or corporation knowingly to solicit, accept, or receive any rebate, concession, or discrimination in respect to any service in, affecting, or relating to the transportation of persons or property, or affecting or relating to the distribu…

The provisions of §§ 39-2-2 — 39-2-4 shall be subject to the following exceptions: (1) A public utility may issue or give free transportation or service to its employees and their families, its officers, agents, surgeons, physicians, and attorneys at law, and to the officers, age…

Whenever any highway bridge over which a street railway is operated shall become unsafe for public travel, the public utility operating the railway shall pay the whole expense of repairing, strengthening, or reconstructing the bridge, if the bridge would be safe for public travel…

If any public utility shall do, or cause to be done, or permit to be done, any matter, act, or thing in chapters 1 — 5 of this title prohibited or declared to be unlawful, or shall omit to do any act, matter, or thing to be done by it, the public utility shall be liable to the pe…

Any public utility which shall violate any provision of chapters 1 — 5 of this title, or shall do any act herein prohibited, or shall fail or refuse to perform any duty enjoined upon it for which a penalty has not been provided, shall be subject to a penalty of not less than two …

Every common carrier shall receive and transport all goods, wares, and merchandise offered to him or her by any person, as promptly and upon as favorable terms and conditions as the common carrier is receiving and transporting goods, wares, and merchandise at the place in which t…

No public utility, whether privately owned or a quasi-public agency, shall distribute electricity or furnish or sell gas in any town or city in which any other public utility is at the time distributing electricity or furnishing or selling gas to the public generally, unless the …

Purchasing cooperatives may at any time be organized consisting of any group of electricity consumers for the purpose of negotiating for electric power from nonregulated power producers. The purchasing cooperatives shall be considered to be associations of electricity consumers o…

(a)(1) The legislative authority of a municipality may adopt an ordinance or resolution, under which it may aggregate in accordance with this section one or more classes of the retail electrical loads located, respectively, within the municipality or town and, for that purpose, m…

(a) Every public utility shall file with the public utilities administrator, within a time to be fixed by the administrator, schedules that shall be open to public inspection, showing all rates, tolls, and charges it has established and that are in force at the time for any servi…

(a) No change shall be made in the rates, tolls, and charges that have been filed and published by any public utility in compliance with the requirements of § 39-3-10, except after thirty (30) days’ notice to the commission and to the public published as provided in § 39-3-10, wh…

(a) Notwithstanding any other provisions of this chapter, the commission shall not have the power to suspend the taking effect of any change or changes in the rates, tolls, and charges filed and published in compliance with the requirements of §§ 39-3-10 and 39-3-11 by any public…

Notwithstanding any other provisions of law, the Providence Water Supply Board shall transfer to the general fund of the city of Providence an amount equal to five percent (5%) per annum times the annual gross revenues of the Providence Water Supply Board for the fiscal year endi…