North Carolina Administrative Code › Title 04 - COMMERCE › Chapter 11 - UTILITIES COMMISSION › Chapter 25 - HIRE NORTH CAROLINA, RESIDENT CONTRACTOR UTILIZATION › Section 11 R25-01 - PURPOSE; APPLICABILITY; DEFINITIONS

Current through Register Vol. 39, No. 2, July 15, 2024
(a)
				Purpose. - For the purpose of promoting economic development, creating jobs,
				and improving the communities served by the utilities, the Commission urges
				utilities to maximize, consistent with law, the use of resident contractors for
				utility projects undertaken in the State of North Carolina. This rule shall
				serve as a tool to encourage and measure utility utilization of North Carolina
				resident contractors, subcontractors, vendors and businesses, including women-
				and minority-owned businesses. This rule is created to foster utility
				engagement with potential North Carolina contractors, providing ways to inform
				North Carolina companies of business opportunities. However, this rule shall
				not be interpreted to supersede any state statute, and nothing in this rule
				shall be construed to prevent a utility from choosing the lowest or best bidder
				for any project, or interfere with the mandate to serve the ratepayers or
				adequately respond to emergencies or support outages.
(b) Applicability. - All contracts for
				construction, extension and/or repair of facilities or other utility projects
				located in North Carolina in excess of $700,000.00 solicited by or on the
				behalf of any utility on or after July 1, 2020, shall be governed by this rule;
				provided, however, this rule shall not apply to planned or unplanned outage
				work, and nothing contained herein shall prohibit any utility from performing
				services covered by this rule with its own regularly-employed
				workforce.
(c) Definitions. - As
				used in this rule, the following definitions shall apply:
(1) Nonresident contractor - A prime
				contractor or subcontractor, be they corporate, individual or partnership,
				domiciled or having its principal place of business in a location other than
				the State of North Carolina that wishes to enter into any agreement with the
				utility or prime contractor for any purpose covered by this rule.
(2) Prime contractor - Any party or person
				(who is not an employee of the utility or its affiliated or associated
				companies) who directly enters into any agreement with a utility for the
				furnishing of services.
(3)
				Resident contractor - A prime contractor or subcontractor, be they corporate,
				individual, or partnership, domiciled or having its principal place of business
				in the State of North Carolina that wishes to enter into any agreement with the
				utility or prime contractor for any purpose covered by this rule.
(4) Subcontractor - Any party or person, who
				is not an employee of the prime contractor or the utility, who directly enters
				into any agreement with a prime contractor:
(i) for the furnishing of services;
				or
(ii)  under which any portion of
				the prime contractor's obligation under any contracts with the utility is
				performed or undertaken.
(5) Utility - The following public utilities
				providing electric and natural gas service in North Carolina: Duke Energy
				Carolinas, LLC; Duke Energy Progress, LLC; Dominion Energy North Carolina;
				Public Service Company of North Carolina, Inc.; and Piedmont Natural Gas
				Company, Inc.