Iowa Admin. Code r. 199-20.1

Current through Regsiter Vol. 46, No. 26, June 12, 2024

Rule 199-20.1 - General information

(1)Authorization of rules. Iowa Code chapter 476 provides that the Iowa utilities board shall establish all needful, just and reasonable rules, not inconsistent with law, to govern the exercise of its powers and duties, the practice and procedure before it, and to govern the form, content and filing of reports, documents and other papers necessary to carry out the provisions of this law.

a. Iowa Code chapter 478 provides that the Iowa utilities board shall have power to make and enforce rules relating to the location, construction, operation and maintenance of certain electrical transmission lines.

b. Electric utilities with fewer than 10,000 customers subject to board regulation pursuant to Iowa Code section 476.1A are subject to the regulatory requirements set out in 199-Chapter 27 for electric cooperatives.

(2)Application of rules. The rules shall apply to any rate-regulated electric utility operating within the state of Iowa subject to Iowa Code chapter 476, and to the construction, operation and maintenance of electric transmission lines to the extent provided in Iowa Code chapter 478, and shall supersede all tariffs on file with the board which are in conflict with these rules.

a. These rules are intended to promote safe and adequate service to the public, to provide standards for uniform and reasonable practices by utilities, and to establish a basis for determining the reasonableness of such demands as may be made by the public upon the utilities.

b. A request to waive the application of any rule on a permanent or temporary basis may be made in accordance with 199-1.3 (17A,474,476).

c. The adoption of these rules shall in no way preclude the board from altering or amending them pursuant to statute or from making such modifications with respect to their application as may be found necessary to meet exceptional conditions.

d. These rules shall in no way relieve any utility from any of its duties under the laws of this state.

(3)Definitions. The following words and terms, when used in these rules, shall have the meaning indicated below:

"Acid Rain Program" means the sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxides air pollution control program established pursuant to Title IV of the Act under 40 CFR Parts 72-78.

"Act" means the Clean Air Act, 42 U.S.C. Section 7401, et seq.

"Affected unit" means a unit or source that is subject to any emission reduction requirement or limitation under the Acid Rain Program, the Clean Air Interstate Rule (CAIR), the Cross-State Air Pollution Rule (CSAPR), or the Mercury and Air Toxics Standards (MATS), or a unit or source that opts in under 40 CFR Part 74 .

"Allowance" means an authorization, allocated by the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), to emit sulfur dioxide (SO₂) under the Acid Rain Program or SO₂and nitrogen oxide (NO_X) under the Clean Air Interstate Rule (CAIR) and the Cross-State Air Pollution Rule (CSAPR) during or after a specified calendar year.

"Allowance futures contract" is an agreement between a futures exchange clearinghouse and a buyer or seller to buy or sell an allowance on a specified future date at a specified price.

"Board" means the utilities board.

"Capacity" means the instantaneous rate at which energy can be delivered, received, or transferred, measured in kilowatts.

"Clean Air Interstate Rule" or "CAIR" means the requirements EPA published in the Federal Register (70 Fed. Reg. 25161) on May 12, 2005.

"Complaint," as used in these rules, is a statement or question by anyone, whether a utility customer or not, alleging a wrong, grievance, injury, dissatisfaction, illegal action or procedure, dangerous condition or action, or utility obligation.

"Compliance plan" means the document submitted for an affected source to the EPA which specifies the methods by which each affected unit at the source will meet the applicable emissions limitation and emissions reduction requirements.

"Cross-State Air Pollution Rule" or "CSAPR" means the requirements established by EPA in 40 CFR 97 Subparts AAAAA, BBBBB, CCCCC, and DDDDD as amended by 81 FR 13275 (March 14, 2016).

"Customer" means any person, firm, association, or corporation, any agency of the federal, state or local government, or legal entity responsible by law for payment for the electric service or heat from the electric utility.

"Delinquent" or "delinquency" means an account for which a service bill or service payment agreement has not been paid in full on or before the last day for timely payment.

"Distribution line" means any single or multiphase electric power line operating at nominal voltage in either of the following ranges: 2,000 to 26,000 volts between ungrounded conductors or 1,155 to 15,000 volts between grounded and ungrounded conductors, regardless of the functional service provided by the line.

"Electric plant" includes all real estate, fixtures and property owned, controlled, operated or managed in connection with or to facilitate production, generation, transmission, or distribution, in providing electric service or heat by an electric utility.

"Electric service" is furnishing to the public for compensation any electricity, heat, light, power, or energy.

"Emission for emission trade" is an exchange of one type of emission for another type of emission. For example, the exchange of SO₂ emission allowances for NO_X emission allowances.

"Energy" means electric energy measured in kilowatt hours.

"Gains and losses from allowance sales" are calculated as the difference between the sale price of allowances sold during the month and the weighted average unit cost of inventoried allowances.

"Mercury and Air Toxics Standards" or "MATS" means the requirements established by EPA in 40 CFR Parts 60 and 63 regarding limits of power plant emissions of toxic air pollutants (February 16, 2012).

"Meter" means, unless otherwise qualified, a device that measures and registers the integral of an electrical quantity with respect to time.

"Operating reserve" is a reserve generating capacity required to ensure reliability of generation resources.

"Peaking power" is power and associated energy intended to be available at all times during the commitment and anticipated to have low load factor use.

"Power" means electric power measured in kilowatts.

"Price hedging" means using futures contracts or options to guard against unfavorable price changes.

"Rate-regulated utility" means any utility, as defined in 20.1(3), which is subject to board rate regulation under Iowa Code chapter 476.

"Secondary line" means any single or multiphase electric power line operating at nominal voltage less than either 2,000 volts between ungrounded conductors or 1,155 volts between grounded and ungrounded conductors, regardless of the functional service provided by the line.

"Service limitation" means the establishment of a limit on the amount of power that may be consumed by a residential customer through the installation of a service limiter on the customer's meter.

"Service limiter" or "service limitation device" means a device that limits a residential customer's power consumption to 3,600 watts (or some higher level of usage approved by the board) and that resets itself automatically, or can be reset manually by the customer, and may also be reset remotely by the utility at all times.

"Speculation" means using futures contracts or options to profit from expectations of future price changes.

"Tariff" means the entire body of rates, tolls, rentals, charges, classifications, rules, procedures, policies, etc., adopted and filed with the board by an electric utility in fulfilling its role of furnishing service.

"Timely payment" is a payment on a customer's account made on or before the date shown on a current bill for service, or on a form which records an agreement between the customer and a utility for a series of partial payments to settle a delinquent account, as the date which determines application of a late payment charge to the current bill or future collection efforts.

"Transmission line" means any single or multiphase electric power line operating at nominal voltages at or in excess of either 69,000 volts between ungrounded conductors or 40,000 volts between grounded and ungrounded conductors, regardless of the functional service provided by the line.

"Utility" means any person, partnership, business association or corporation, domestic or foreign, owning or operating any facilities for providing electric service or heat to the public for compensation.

"Vintage trade" is an exchange of one vintage of allowances for another vintage of allowances with the difference in value between vintages being cash or additional allowances.

"Weighted average unit cost of inventoried allowances" equals the dollars in inventory at the end of the month divided by the total allowances available for use at the end of the month.

"Wheeling service" is the service provided by a utility in consenting to the use of its transmission facilities by another party for the purpose of scheduling delivery of power or energy, or both.

(4)Abbreviations. The following abbreviations may be used where appropriate:

ANSI-American National Standards Institute, 1430 Broadway, New York, New York 10018.

DOE-Department of Energy, Washington, D.C. 20426.

EPA-United States Environmental Protection Agency.

FCC-Federal Communications Commission, 1919 M Street, Washington, D.C. 20554.

FERC-Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, Washington, D.C. 20426.

NARUC-National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners, P.O. Box 684, Washington, D.C. 20044.

NBS-National Bureau of Standards, Washington, D.C. 20234.

NFPA-National Fire Protection Association, 470 Atlantic Ave., Boston, Massachusetts 02210.

Iowa Admin. Code r. 199-20.1

ARC 7976B, lAB 7/29/09, effective 9/2/09

Amended by IAB December 5, 2018/Volume XLI, Number 12, effective 1/9/2019

Amended by IAB November 3, 2021/Volume XLIV, Number 9, effective 12/8/2021