Montana Code 69-3-1404. Functional separation — code of conduct — emergency services — customer protection
69-3-1404. Functional separation — code of conduct — emergency services — customer protection. (1) Except as provided in 69-3-1413 through 69-3-1416, a natural gas utility that provides customer choice and open access on its system shall:
Terms Used In Montana Code 69-3-1404
- commission: means the public service commission provided for in 2-15-2602. See Montana Code 69-1-101
- Customer: means a natural gas customer or consumer of natural gas supply or natural gas transmission facilities, storage facilities, or distribution facilities. See Montana Code 69-3-1402
- Natural gas production and gathering resources: means plants or equipment, minerals, and mineral rights used to extract natural gas from the earth and to collect, purify, measure, regulate, compress, and transport natural gas from its place of production to its connection with a transmission facility. See Montana Code 69-3-1402
- Natural gas supplier: means a person, including aggregators, market aggregators, brokers, and marketers, licensed by the commission that is offering to sell natural gas to retail customers in the state of Montana. See Montana Code 69-3-1402
- Natural gas utility: means a utility regulated by the commission on May 2, 1997, that provides natural gas services to the public. See Montana Code 69-3-1402
- Open access: means that a natural gas utility has made its transmission facilities, storage facilities, or distribution facilities available to all natural gas suppliers, transmission services providers, distribution services providers, and customers on a nondiscriminatory and comparable basis. See Montana Code 69-3-1402
(a)functionally separate its natural gas production and gathering resources from its natural gas transmission, storage, and distribution services and remove natural gas production and gathering resources from the rate base;
(b)adopt and comply with commission-approved standards of conduct to be included in a tariff to govern its natural gas transmission, storage, and distribution services; and
(c)provide emergency natural gas supply and related services to the extent necessary to maintain the operational integrity of the transmission system as determined by the commission.
(2)The commission shall develop standards that protect consumers and natural gas suppliers from anticompetitive and abusive practices.
(3)This part does not reduce or otherwise change the authority of the commission to review the prudence of natural gas purchases made by a natural gas utility for its customers that do not have a choice or that have not made a choice of natural gas suppliers or have not been assigned a natural gas supplier.