Missouri Code of State Regulations › Title 20 - DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE AND INSURANCE › Division 4240 - Public Service Commission › Chapter 10 - Utilities › Section 20 CSR 4240-10.030 - Standards of Quality

Current through Register Vol. 49, No. 14, July 15, 2024
PURPOSE: This rule prescribes standards of quality
				  for electric, gas and water utilities operating under the jurisdiction of the
				  Public Service Commission.
PUBLISHER'S NOTE: The secretary of state has
				  determined that the publication of the entire text of the material which is
				  incorporated by reference as a portion of this rule would be unduly cumbersome
				  or expensive.
Therefore, the material which is so incorporated is
				  on file with the agency who filed this rule, and with the Office of the
				  Secretary of State. Any interested person may view this material at either
				  agency's headquarters or the same will be made available at the Office of the
				  Secretary of State at a cost not to exceed actual cost of copy reproduction.
				  The entire text of the rule is printed here. This note refers only to the
				  incorporated by reference material.
(1) This rule applies to all gas, electric
				and water corporations, as these terms are defined in section
				386.020, RSMo,
				engaged in the business of furnishing gas or electricity for light, heat or
				power, or supplying water for domestic or commercial uses within Missouri. The
				word utility, when used in these rules, shall be construed to mean any gas
				corporation, electric corporation or water corporation engaged in the
				designated business.
(2) A record
				shall be kept, systematically arranged, of the names and addresses of all
				consumers furnished with metered service, with the identification number of
				meter or meters in use for each consumer. Records shall be kept showing the
				following information for each meter: date of purchase; company's number, if
				any; name plate data; place of last installation; and date of last
				test.
(3) Each utility shall keep
				records of tests of the accuracy of each of its meters, until superseded by a
				later test but not less than two (2) years. These records shall give sufficient
				information to identify the meter; the reason for the test; the date of the
				test and reading of the meter; the name of the person making the test; the
				accuracy as found and as left, together with enough of the data taken at the
				time of the test to permit the convenient checking of the methods employed; and
				the calculations. Systems of meter and test records already in use will meet
				with the approval of the commission; provided, they conform substantially with
				the rule. Application shall be made to the commission for this
				approval.
(4) The allowance of
				certain variations from correctness on meters as specified in this rule does
				not mean that meters may deliberately be set in error by the amount of the
				tolerance. This tolerance is specified to allow for the necessary
				irregularities in meter tests and maintenance conducted on a commercial
				scale.
(5) Each service meter shall
				be suited to the particular installation to which it is assigned and chosen
				with a view of obtaining the best adaption to local conditions and to the
				load.
(6) It is suggested that
				those utilities not required to maintain certain testing equipment specified in
				the rule arrange to perform the tests by making use of the testing equipment of
				some nearby utility required to maintain the testing equipment.
(7) Reasonable efforts shall be made to
				eliminate interruptions of service, and when these interruptions occur, service
				should be reestablished with the shortest possible delay. When service is
				interrupted for the purpose of working on any portion of the system, the
				interruption should occur at a time which will cause the least inconvenience to
				the consumer, and those seriously affected by the interruptions, if possible,
				should be notified in advance. A record shall be kept of all interruptions of
				service on the entire system or major divisions, including the times, duration
				and cause of each interruption. These records shall be filed, made available
				for inspection by the commission and preserved for a period of at least one (1)
				year.
(8) Each utility shall keep a
				record of the time of starting up and shutting down all important items of
				equipment. A record shall be kept of the indications of the principal
				switchboard instruments, station meters, gauges, and the like, readings being
				taken at sufficiently frequent intervals to show the characteristics of the
				load. When feasible, graphic recording instruments should be used for this
				purpose in accordance with the best modern practice. These records or charts,
				suitably identified and dated, shall be filed available for inspection by the
				commission and preserved for a period of at least two (2) years.
(9) When gas is to be tested under this rule,
				a cubic foot of gas shall be taken to be that amount of gas which occupies the
				volume of one (1) cubic foot when saturated with water vapor and at a
				temperature of sixty degrees Fahrenheit (60°F) and under a pressure above zero
				(0) of thirty inches (30") of mercury. For the purpose of measurement of gas to
				a consumer at the stated delivery pressure, a cubic foot of gas shall be taken
				to be the amount of gas which occupies a volume of one (1) cubic foot under the
				conditions existing in the consumer's meter as and where installed; provided,
				the meter is not subject to abnormal temperature conditions. In cases where gas
				is supplied to customers through orifice or positive displacement meters at
				other than stated delivery pressure, a cubic foot of gas shall be defined to be
				that volume of gas which, at sixty degrees Fahrenheit (60°F) and at absolute
				pressure of 14.73 pounds per square inch (psi) (thirty inches (30") of mercury)
				occupies one (1) cubic foot; except that in cases where different bases that
				are considered by the commission to be fair and reasonable are provided for in
				gas sales contracts or in rules or practices of a utility, these different
				bases shall be effective.
(10) The
				monthly average total heating value of manufactured gas shall be not less than
				five hundred seventy (570) British Thermal Units (BTUs) per cubic foot at any
				point within at least one (1) mile of the manufacturing plant, and shall be at
				no time the total heating value of the gas at that point less than five hundred
				twenty (520) BTUs per cubic foot, unless a different standard of heating value
				is specifically authorized by the commission, and provided that no utility
				shall lower its present standard heating value without first obtaining the
				approval of the commission. To arrive at the monthly average total heating
				value, the result of all tests made on any one (1) day shall be averaged and
				the average of all these daily averages shall be taken as the monthly average.
				The term heating value of the gas, as used in this rule and as the value is
				determined in the tests referred to in this rule, shall be the total heating
				value as it is defined in the
Bureau of Standards Circular No. 405
				Standards For Gas Service.
(11) Each utility whose output exceeds twenty
				(20) million cubic feet of manufactured gas per year shall provide and maintain
				a calorimeter and all necessary accessories therefor, and such utility shall
				determine the heating value of manufactured gas supplied by it under the
				requirements set forth by this rule on at least three (3) days of each week. If
				the gas supplied by the utility is natural gas, it is excused from providing
				and maintaining a calorimeter; provided, it has available to it information by
				which it may keep itself fully informed respecting the heating value of the gas
				delivered by it. If the gas supplied by the utility is liquefied petroleum gas
				and it has installed adequate facilities by which it is able and does control
				continuously the heating value of the gas as furnished to the customers'
				premises and by which it may keep itself fully informed respecting the heating
				value of the gas delivered by it, the utility is excused from providing and
				maintaining a calorimeter. Heating value tests should be made or secured on
				natural gas at least three (3) times per year. A record of these tests or the
				information secured shall be maintained available for inspection by the
				commission and preserved for a period of at least two (2) years.
(12) All gas distributed in this state shall
				not contain more than a trace of hydrogen sulphide. The gas shall be considered
				to contain not more than a trace of hydrogen sulphide if a strip of white
				filter paper moistened with a solution containing five percent (5%) by weight
				of lead acetate is not distinctly darker than a second paper freshly moistened
				with the same solution after the first paper has been exposed to the gas for
				one (1) minute in an apparatus previously purged through which gas is flowing
				at the rate of five (5) cubic feet per hour and not impinging directly from a
				jet upon the test paper. Tests shall be made daily on manufactured gas leaving
				the holders, for the presence of hydrogen sulphide, in the manner specified,
				and a record of the result of these tests shall be filed available for
				inspection by the commission and preserved for a period of at least two (2)
				years. Each utility supplying natural gas shall make tests for hydrogen
				sulphide with a frequency as is necessary to keep itself informed that the gas
				distributed by it does not contain more hydrogen sulphide than the trace
				previously defined and at other times as the commission may require. A record
				of these tests shall be kept for a period of two (2) years.
(13) It is recommended that all gas delivered
				by the utilities shall possess a strong and distinctive odor. If the cost of
				introducing an odor into the gas to obtain the condition continuously is
				excessive, a suitable odorant shall be introduced during the early part of the
				heating season and once during the nonheat-ing season each year. During periods
				of odor-izing gas to detect leaks, there may be more than a trace of sulphur in
				the gas and this temporary condition is permissible.
(14) Each gas utility should set up and
				follow a rigid program of preventive maintenance of its gas distribution
				system.
(15) All manufactured gas
				distributed shall contain not more than thirty (30) grains of total sulphur nor
				more than five (5) grains of ammonia in each one hundred (100) cubic feet. Each
				utility whose output exceeds fifty (50) million cubic feet of manufactured gas
				per year shall provide and maintain the apparatus and facilities as are
				necessary for the determination of total sulphur and ammonia in gas and each
				utility shall regularly determine the amount of total sulphur and ammonia in
				the manufactured gas distributed by it at sufficiently frequent intervals to
				insure compliance with the foregoing requirements; provided, however, that any
				such utility supplying only water gas or oil gas shall not be required to
				provide apparatus or make determinations of the amount of ammonia in gas. A
				record of these tests shall be maintained available for inspection by the
				commission and preserved for a period of at least two (2) years.
(16) Except by special authority from the
				commission for the delivery of a higher service pressure, gas shall be
				furnished at not less than equivalent to four inches (4") water column nor more
				than two (2) pounds per square inch gauge (psig) pressure measured at the inlet
				of the consumer's piping downstream from the meter; provided, that with respect
				to any consumer whose rate of consumption, based upon designed capacity of
				installed equipment, reaches or exceeds four hundred fifty (450) cubic feet per
				hour, a utility, without obtaining special permission, may furnish gas to the
				consumer at a maximum pressure greater than two (2) psig if the utility shall
				determine that a greater pressure is available and is desirable to effect
				economy in delivery or efficiency in utilization of gas by the consumer. In
				those instances where the delivery pressure to the consumer is greater than an
				equivalent to fourteen inches (14") of water column, a regulator shall be
				required ahead of all gas consuming equipment. The maximum pressure on any one
				(1) day at the inlet of the consumer's piping downstream from the meter shall
				never exceed twice the minimum pressure at that point on that day. At the time
				a utility establishes gas service to any applicant a leakage test shall be made
				at the intended delivery pressure to the consumer to insure that the
				applicant's fuel line is in a safe condition; provided, however, if the maximum
				delivery pressure exceeds two (2) psig then the customer's piping system shall
				be tested at one and one-half (1 1/2) times the maximum delivery pressure.
				Service shall not be established until the utility determines that this test
				has been properly made.
(17) Each
				utility furnishing gas service in cities of two thousand five hundred (2,500)
				inhabitants or over shall maintain a graphic recording pressure gauge at its
				plant, downtown office or at some central point in the distributing system or
				each subdivision of the system where continuous records shall be made of the
				service pressure at that point. Utilities operating in cities of five thousand
				(5,000) or more inhabitants shall equip themselves with one (1) or more graphic
				recording pressure gauges in addition to the foregoing and shall make frequent
				records, each covering intervals of at least twenty-four (24) hours duration of
				the gas service pressure at various points on the system. All records or charts
				made by these meters shall be identified, dated and kept on file available for
				inspection for a period of at least two (2) years.
(18) No gas service meter shall be allowed in
				service which has incorrect gear ratio or dial train or is in any way
				mechanically defective or shows an error in measurement in excess of two
				percent (2%) when passing gas at the rate of six (6) cubic feet per hour per
				rated light capacity. When adjustment is necessary, the adjustment should be
				made to within at least one percent (1%) of correct registration. Tests for
				accuracy shall be made with a suitable meter prover, at least two (2)
				consecutive test runs being made which agree within one-half (1/2) of one
				percent (1%).
(19) Unless otherwise
				ordered by the commission, each gas service meter installed shall be
				periodically removed, inspected and tested at least once every one hundred
				twenty (120) months, or as often as the results obtained may warrant to insure
				compliance with the provisions of section (18) of this rule.
(20) Each utility furnishing metered gas
				service shall make a test of the accuracy of any gas service meter free of
				charge upon request of a consumer; provided, that the meter has not been tested
				within twelve (12) months previous to the request. The consumer shall be
				notified of the time and place of the test so that s/he may be present to
				witness the test should s/he so desire. A written report giving the results of
				the requested test shall be made to the consumer requesting the results, the
				original record being kept on file at the office of the utility under the
				provisions of section (2) of this rule.
(21) Any gas service meter will be tested by
				the commission upon written application of the consumer or utility as follows:
(A) The utility involved either shall remove
				the meter or give its consent to the removal of the meter but the consumer
				shall be given an opportunity to witness the disconnection, packing and
				shipment of the meter should s/he so desire;
(B) The meter will be returned with a special
				seal which, if the meter is to be reinstalled on this consumer's premises,
				shall not be disturbed until after the consumer has been given an opportunity
				to inspect the meter;
(C) A fee of
				two dollars ($2) will be charged by this commission and paid to the Division of
				Collections of the Department of Revenue of Missouri for each gas service meter
				tested having a capacity of not exceeding ten (10) lights. For larger meters a
				proportionally larger fee will be charged, depending upon the size of the
				meter; and
(D) If the meter is fast
				beyond the prescribed limit in section (18) of this rule, the utility will be
				required to pay the test fee and cost of shipping meter; otherwise these
				expenses shall be borne by the consumer requesting the test.