§824j–1 Open Access by Unregulated Transmitting Utilities

Summary

The Commission may require certain owners of interstate electric transmission lines to offer transmission service to others. They must charge rates like the rates they charge themselves and must use the same kinds of non-rate terms, and those terms must not be unfair or favor some customers. Unregulated transmitting utility: a company that owns or runs facilities that move electricity across state lines and is the kind of entity listed in section 824(f). The Commission must exempt utilities that sell no more than 4,000,000 megawatt-hours a year, that don’t own transmission facilities needed to run an interconnected system, or that meet other public-interest tests. Local distribution facilities are not covered. The Commission can hold a hearing and remove an exemption if it finds, on the balance of the evidence and after looking at reliability rules under section 824o, that reliability is harmed. Rules about changing rates in section 824d(c) and (d) apply, the Commission can send rates back for revision, and these rules do not force states, municipalities, or utilities to violate federal bond rules or to hand over control of their facilities to a designated Transmission Organization.