I. The term “public utility” shall include every corporation, company, association, joint stock association, partnership and person, their lessees, trustees or receivers appointed by any court, except municipal corporations and county corporations operating within their corporate limits, owning, operating or managing any plant or equipment or any part of the same for the conveyance of telephone or telegraph messages or for the manufacture or furnishing of light, heat, sewage disposal, power or water for the public, or in the generation, transmission or sale of electricity ultimately sold to the public, or owning or operating any pipeline, including pumping stations, storage depots and other facilities, for the transportation, distribution or sale of gas, crude petroleum, refined petroleum products, or combinations of petroleum products, rural electric cooperatives organized pursuant to N.H. Rev. Stat. Chapter 301 or RSA 301-A, and any other business, except as hereinafter exempted, over which on September 1, 1951, the public utilities commission exercised jurisdiction.
II. For the purposes of this title only, rural electric cooperatives for which a certificate of deregulation is on file with the public utilities commission pursuant to N.H. Rev. Stat. § 301:57 shall not be considered public utilities; provided, however, that the provisions of N.H. Rev. Stat. § 362-A:1, 362-A:2, 362-A:3, 362-A:4, 362-A:5, 362-A:6, 362-A:7, 362-A:8, 363-B, 371, 374:2-a, 374:26, 374:48-56, 374-A, 374-C, 374-F, and 378:37 shall, unless otherwise provided herein, be applicable to rural electric cooperatives, without regard to whether a certificate of regulation or deregulation is on file with the public utilities commission. The provisions of N.H. Rev. Stat. Chapter 374-A and the provisions of N.H. Rev. Stat. § 374-F:3, V(b) and (f) and N.H. Rev. Stat. § 374-F:7 shall be applicable to rural electric cooperatives for which a certificate of deregulation is on file with the public utilities commission to the same extent as municipal utilities.