SLS 22RS-51 ORIGINAL 2022 Regular Session SENATE BILL NO. 352 BY SENATOR FIELDS COMMERCIAL REGULATIONS. Requires utility providers to issue a credit to customers who experience an outage of service for more than 24 hours. (8/1/22) 1 AN ACT 2 To enact Part V-C of Chapter 9 of Title 45 of the Louisiana Revised Statues of 1950, to be 3 comprised of R.S. 45:1240.1 through 1240.3, relative to public utilities; to provide 4 relative to consumer credits; to provide rules, regulations, and procedures; and to 5 provide for related matters. 6 Be it enacted by the Legislature of Louisiana: 7 Section 1. Part V-C of Chapter 9 of Title 45 of the Louisiana Revised Statues of 8 1950, comprised of R.S. 45:1240.1 through 1240.3, is hereby enacted to read as follows: 9 PART V-C. UTILITY CREDIT FOR CONSUMERS 10 §1240.1. Definitions 11 As used in this Part, the following terms and phrases shall have the 12 following meanings: 13 (1) "Commission" means the Louisiana Public Service Commission. 14 (2) "Utility or utility service provider" means either of the following: 15 (a) Any person, public or private, subject to the general jurisdiction of 16 the commission pursuant to Article IV, Section 21 of the Constitution of 17 Louisiana who provides electric or gas services to consumers in this state. Page 1 of 2 Coding: Words which are struck through are deletions from existing law; words in boldface type and underscored are additions. SB NO. 352 SLS 22RS-51 ORIGINAL 1 (b) Any person, public or private, who provides electric, water, 2 telecommunication, gas, cable, or internet service within this state. 3 (3) "Eligible customer" means any person that has a written service 4 agreement with a utility service provider. 5 §1240.2. Rules and regulations; utility credit 6 The commission shall adopt any rule or order to ensure that all eligible 7 customers of a utility service provider, who experience an outage of utility 8 service for a period longer than twenty-four consecutive hours, shall receive an 9 automatic credit to their utility service bill. 10 §1240.3. Violations; penalties 11 The commission shall, by rule or order, adopt penalties, for any violation 12 of this Part. The original instrument and the following digest, which constitutes no part of the legislative instrument, were prepared by Xavier I. Alexander. DIGEST SB 352 Original 2022 Regular Session Fields Proposed law provides for the following definitions: (1)"Commission" means the La. Public Service Commission. (2)"Utility or utility service provider" means either: (a)Any person, public or private, subject to the general jurisdiction of the commission pursuant to the Constitution of Louisiana who provides electric or gas services to consumers in this state. (b)Any person, public or private, who provides electric, water, telecommunication, gas, cable or internet service within this state. (3)"Eligible customer" means any person that has a written service agreement with a utility service provider. Proposed law provides that all utility service providers, who provides, gas electric, water, telecommunication, gas, cable or internet service in this state shall issue a credit to all customers who experience an outage of utility service for longer than 24 hours. Effective August 1, 2022. (Adds R.S. 45:1240.1-1240.3) Page 2 of 2 Coding: Words which are struck through are deletions from existing law; words in boldface type and underscored are additions.