Section 810-RICR-30-00-1.4 - Standards of ConductA. PERSONNEL 1. A utility employee may not do any of the following on behalf of a gas marketer:a. Purchase gas, pipeline capacity or storage capacity.b. Market or sell gas and related services.c. Price or administer transportation upstream of the city gate and related tariff services, non-tariff and competitive products and services.d. Hire and train gas marketer employees.2. A utility employee may offer to sell or otherwise proffer gas, pipeline capacity or storage capacity, and related services to a gas marketer or to others on behalf of the utility. A utility employee may respond to transportation and related tariff service requests or inquiries from the gas marketer as well as from others on behalf of the utility.3. A marketing affiliate may receive corporate-level support affiliated with the preparation of joint financial statements and shareholder relations.4. The use of shared employees shall be minimized. A shared employee shall record time in a manner consistent with the master service framework, if applicable.5. The use of utility operating personnel, as established in a master service framework is permitted, subject to all of the following limitations:a. The use of a utility employee by a gas marketer or the use of a gas marketer employee by the utility is not allowed if it is likely to result in the sharing or exposure of market sensitive information or an unfair competitive advantage for either party.b. Advice and assistance in human resource management shall be limited to general personnel and corporate matters. It shall not include job or position specific hiring or training advice or assistance dealing with the functions to be performed by the employee.c. Advice or assistance with regard to engineering and construction matters as well as gas consulting services shall be made available to all gas marketers on an equal basis.6. Utility operating personnel may engage in transactions involving natural gas supply, capacity, or both, with a gas marketer, but may not share with the gas marketer any information related to sales by other gas marketers of natural gas supply, capacity, or both.7. An individual may not be an officer of both a utility and a gas marketer.B. PROPERTY 1. A gas marketer shall occupy facilities that are physically separate from a utility. Unless otherwise allowed through the master service framework, office equipment and services used on a regular basis may not be provided by a utility or shared in any manner.C. RECORDS 1. A marketing affiliate's books shall be kept separate from the utility's books. Aggregated information that is not market sensitive of a utility or of a marketing affiliate may be transferred to or from the utility or the marketing affiliate for corporate financial accounting and reporting purposes. a. A utility may not obtain account information or market sensitive information from a gas marketer.b. If a utility is not part of a holding company system, the utility may have corporate responsibilities for actions of a marketing affiliate. Under these circumstances, individual account or market sensitive information of a marketing affiliate may not be disclosed to the utility except in extreme situations where there is a corporate need to access such information. In such a situation, the information shall be shared only on a need-to-know basis, shall be kept confidential and may not be shared with utility operating personnel. Individual account or market sensitive information of the utility may not be disclosed to a gas marketer.c. If a utility is part of a holding company system, individual account or market sensitive information of the utility may not be disclosed to a gas marketer. Likewise, individual account or market sensitive information of the gas marketer may not be transferred to the utility.2. Without the written consent of the customer, a utility employee may not disclose to a gas marketer any information which the utility receives from any of the following: a. A customer or supplier.b. A potential customer or supplier.c. An agent of a customer or supplier or potential customer or supplier.d. A gas marketer or other supply entity seeking to supply gas to a customer or potential customer that is located in the utility's service territory.3. A utility may disclose information that is aggregated so that specific customer, gas supply contract, pipeline capacity contract, release capacity contract, and storage contract information cannot be ascertained. The utility may not disclose such information to a marketing affiliate or any other market participant without that information being equally accessible to other interested parties.4. A utility may disclose non-customer specific information, such as market trends, economic forecasts, regulatory trends, demographics, opinion research, gas supply outlook, technology trends, and similar information. The utility may not disclose such information to its gas marketer or any other market participant without making that information being equally accessible to other interested parties.5. If a utility is part of a holding company system, the utility may not perform audits of a marketing affiliate. The holding company shall be responsible for ensuring the confidentiality of sensitive information gained during the course of an audit. A holding company may not utilize utility employees to perform an audit of a marketing affiliate.6. If a utility is not part of a holding company system and has corporate and financial responsibilities for the marketing affiliate, an audit may be performed by utility support personnel. Confidential information obtained in an audit which may be market sensitive or may provide an unfair competitive advantage may not be shared with or made available to utility operating personnel.7. A utility must file annually with the Commission a confidential report detailing transportation volumes and associated number of customers, by gas marketer.D. ADVERTISING 1. Promotional materials may allow marketers to be identified as affiliated with utilities. However, neither utilities nor marketing affiliate personnel may represent that any advantage accrues to customers or others in the use of the utility's services as a result of that customer or others dealing with the marketing affiliate. Joint promotions between the utility and the marketing affiliate are prohibited, unless such promotions are offered to all other competitors under the same terms and conditions. A utility and a marketing affiliate may not share trademarks or logos.810 R.I. Code R. 810-RICR-30-00-1.4