Section 57.194. Distribution system reliability

(a) An EDC shall furnish and maintain adequate, efficient, safe and reasonable service and facilities, and shall make repairs, changes, alterations, substitutions, extensions and improvements in or to the service and facilities necessary or proper for the accommodation, convenience and safety of its patrons, employees and the public. The service shall be reasonably continuous and without unreasonable interruptions or delay.

(b) An EDC shall install, maintain and operate its distribution system in conformity with the applicable requirements of the National Electrical Safety Code.

(c) An EDC shall make periodic inspections of its equipment and facilities in accordance with good practice and in a manner satisfactory to the Commission.

(d) An EDC shall strive to prevent interruptions of electric service and, when interruptions occur, restore service within the shortest reasonable time. If service must be interrupted for maintenance purposes, an EDC should, where reasonable and practicable, attempt to perform the work at a time which will cause minimal inconvenience to customers and provide notice to customers in advance of the interruption.

(e) An EDC shall design and maintain procedures to achieve the reliability performance benchmarks and minimum performance standards established by the Commission.

(f) An EDC shall develop and maintain a program for analyzing the service performance of its circuits during the course of each year.

(g) An EDC shall maintain a 5-year historical record of all known customer interruptions by category of interruption duration, including the time, duration and cause of each interruption. An EDC shall retain all records to support the reporting requirements under § 57.195 (relating to reporting requirements) for 5 years.

(h) An EDC shall take measures necessary to meet the reliability performance benchmarks and minimum performance standards established by the Commission.

(1) The performance standard shall be the minimum level of EDC reliability performance allowed by the Commission for each measure for all EDCs. Performance that does not meet the standard for any reliability measure shall be the threshold for triggering additional scrutiny and potential compliance enforcement actions by the Commission’s prosecutorial staff.

(i) The Commission will consider historical performance levels, performance trends, and the number and type of standards violated when determining appropriate additional monitoring and compliance enforcement actions. The Commission will consider other information and factors including an EDC’s outage cause analysis, inspection and maintenance goal data, operations and maintenance and capital expenditure data, and staffing levels as presented in the quarterly and annual reports as well as in filed incident reports.

(ii) Additional monitoring and enforcement actions that may be taken are engaging in additional remedial review, requiring additional EDC reporting, conducting an informal investigation, initiating a formal complaint, requiring a formal improvement plan with enforceable commitments, requiring an implementation schedule, and assessing penalties and fines.

(2) An EDC shall inspect, maintain and operate its distribution system, analyze reliability results, and take corrective measures as necessary to achieve performance benchmarks and performance standards.

The provisions of this § 57.194 amended September 17, 2004, effective September 18, 2004, 34 Pa.B. 5135. Immediately preceeding text appears at serial pages (246399) to (246400).

Notation

Authority

The provisions of this § 57.194 amended under the Public Utility Code, 66 Pa.C.S. § 501; and the Electric Generation Customer Choice and Competition Act, 66 Pa.C.S. § § 2801—2812.

Cross References

This section cited in 52 Pa. Code § 57.195 (relating to reporting requirements); and 52 Pa. Code § 57.197 (relating to reliability investigations and enforcement).