66-1851. Jurisdictional utility; customer choice or other programs; how treated.

(1) Notwithstanding any other provisions in the State Natural Gas Regulation Act, a jurisdictional utility may file with the commission rates and one or more rate schedules and other charges, and rules and regulations pertaining thereto, that enable the utility to provide service to ratepayers under customer choice and other programs offered by a utility to unbundle one or more elements of the service provided by the utility.

(2) The commission shall not eliminate or modify the terms of any customer choice or other unbundling programs in existence on May 31, 2003, or as thereafter modified by a filing made by the jurisdictional utility, except as permitted by the act after complaint or the commission's own motion and hearing. In any rate determination made under the act, the commission shall not penalize the utility for any action prudently taken or decision prudently made under its approved bundling program, by imputing revenue at maximum rates or otherwise.

(3) The commission may not modify the provisions of a program under this section except upon complaint or the commission's own motion, wherein the commission finds, after hearing, that one or more aspects of the program are unduly preferential, unjustly discriminatory, or not just and reasonable.

Source:Laws 2003, LB 790, ยง 51.