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Title 16, ConservationRelease 119-110

§832d Contracts for Sale of Electricity

Title 16 › CHAPTER 12B — BONNEVILLE PROJECT › § 832d

Last updated Sep 22, 2026|Official source

Summary

The administrator must make and sign wholesale power-sale contracts under this law and under rate plans the Secretary of Energy approves. These contracts can sell electricity to public bodies, cooperatives, private agencies or people, and supply Federal agencies. If a private buyer is not a privately owned utility that serves the public, the contract must stop that buyer from reselling power to any private utility that sells to the general public and must be canceled right away if that rule is broken. Contracts are binding and can run, including renewals, for up to 20 years. They must allow agreed rate changes at suitable times, but at least once every five years. For contracts with utilities that sell to the public, the administrator may cancel with five years’ written notice if the power is needed for public bodies or cooperatives; cancellation can be for all or part of the power. Such utility contracts must set resale rules and require the utility to keep its public rate schedule on file with the administrator. The administrator may also make exchange deals with public or private power systems to swap unused extra power on fair terms for cheaper operation or for emergency or breakdown help.

Full Legal Text

Title 16, §832d

Conservation, Source: USLM XML via OLRC

(a)Authorization of Administrator; contents of contracts
Subject to the provisions of this chapter and to such rate schedules as the Secretary of Energy may approve, as provided in this chapter, the administrator shall negotiate and enter into contracts for the sale at wholesale of electric energy, either for resale or direct consumption, to public bodies and cooperatives and to private agencies and persons and for the disposition of electric energy to Federal agencies. Contracts for the sale of electric energy to any private person or agency other than a privately owned public utility engaged in selling electric energy to the general public, shall contain a provision forbidding such private purchaser to resell any of such electric energy so purchased to any private utility or agency engaged in the sale of electric energy to the general public, and requiring the immediate canceling of such contract of sale in the event of violation of such provision. Contracts entered into under this subsection shall be binding in accordance with the terms thereof and shall be effective for such period or periods, including renewals or extensions, as may be provided therein, not exceeding in the aggregate twenty years from the respective dates of the making of such contracts. Contracts entered into under this subsection shall contain (1) such provisions as the administrator and purchaser agree upon for the equitable adjustment of rates at appropriate intervals, not less frequently than once in every five years, and (2) in the case of a contract with any purchaser engaged in the business of selling electric energy to the general public, the contract shall provide that the administrator may cancel such contract upon five years’ notice in writing if in the judgment of the administrator any part of the electric energy purchased under such contract is likely to be needed to satisfy the requirements of the said public bodies or cooperatives referred to in this chapter, and that such cancelation may be with respect to all or any part of the electric energy so purchased under said contract to the end that the preferential rights and priorities accorded public bodies and cooperatives under this chapter shall at all times be preserved. Contracts entered into with any utility engaged in the sale of electric energy to the general public shall contain such terms and conditions, including among other things stipulations concerning resale and resale rates by any such utility, as the administrator may deem necessary, desirable or appropriate to effectuate the purposes of this chapter and to insure that resale by such utility to the ultimate consumer shall be at rates which are reasonable and nondiscriminatory. Such contracts shall also require such utility to keep on file in the office of the administrator a schedule of all its rates and charges to the public for electric energy and such alterations and changes therein as may be put into effect by such utility.
(b)Exchange of excess power
The administrator is authorized to enter into contracts with public or private power systems for the mutual exchange of unused excess power upon suitable exchange terms for the purpose of economical operation or of providing emergency or break-down relief.

Legislative History

Notes & Related Subsidiaries

Editorial Notes

Amendments

1945—Subsec. (a). Act Oct. 23, 1945, inserted “and for the disposition of electric energy to Federal agencies” in first sentence.

Statutory Notes and Related Subsidiaries

Transfer of Functions

“Secretary of Energy” substituted for “Federal Power Commission” in subsec. (a) pursuant to Pub. L. 95–91, § 301(b), which is classified to section 7151(b) of Title 42, The Public Health and Welfare. Functions of Secretary of the Interior with respect to Bonneville Power Administration transferred to Secretary of Energy by section 7152(a)(1)(D), (2) of Title 42, with Bonneville Power Administration to be preserved as a distinct organizational entity within Department of Energy and headed by an Administrator. The Federal Power Commission was terminated, and its functions, personnel, property, funds, etc., were transferred to the Secretary of Energy (except for certain functions which were transferred to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission) by section 7151(b), 7171(a), 7172(a), 7291, and 7293 of Title 42.

Executive Documents

Transfer of Functions

Executive and administrative functions of Federal Power Commission, with certain reservations, transferred to Chairman of such Commission, with authority vested in him to authorize their performance by any officer, employee, or administrative unit under his jurisdiction, by Reorg. Plan No. 9 of 1950, §§ 1, 2, eff. May 24, 1950, 15 F.R. 3175, 64 Stat. 1265, set out as a note under section 792 of this title. For

Transfer of Functions

of other officers, employees, and agencies of Department of the Interior, with certain exceptions, to Secretary of the Interior, with power to delegate, see Reorg. Plan No. 3 of 1950, §§ 1, 2, eff. May 24, 1950, 15 F.R. 3174, 64 Stat. 1262, set out in the Appendix to Title 5, Government Organization and Employees.

Reference

Citations & Metadata

Citation

16 U.S.C. § 832d

Title 16, Conservation

Last Updated

Sep 22, 2026

Release point: 119-110