Virginia Administrative Code › Title 20 - PUBLIC UTILITIES AND TELECOMMUNICATIONS › Agency 5 - STATE CORPORATION COMMISSION › Chapter 300 - ENERGY REGULATION; IN GENERAL › Section 20VAC5-300-110 - Natural gas priorities and rules

Current through Register Vol. 40, No. 24, July 15, 2024
NATURAL GAS PRIORITIES AND RULES
This plan sets forth the priorities which shall apply
				  whenever any jurisdictional natural gas utility operating in Virginia has
				  insufficient gas available to meet the end-use needs of its customers during a
				  gas supply emergency. An "emergency," as contemplated within these rules,
				  includes, but is not limited to, an unforeseen, or unplanned event resulting in
				  a shortage of gas supplies or an inability to deliver gas such that human needs
				  requirements are threatened. When it becomes necessary for any jurisdictional
				  natural gas utility to curtail gas deliveries to its customers during such an
				  emergency, the following priorities will apply beginning with the highest
				  number and proceeding in reverse order to Priority 1. All customers within a
				  priority class, or all customers within any subclass thereof, which is subject
				  to curtailment shall be curtailed to the extent practicable on an equal basis.
				  If a customer's end-use requirements come under two or more priorities, then
				  such requirements must be treated separately when applying this schedule of
				  priorities. Transportation customers will have equivalent end-use priorities as
				  sales customers.
PRIORITIES FOR SERVICE
Priority 1 - Customer requirements for residential service,
				  and requirements for human needs without alternate fuel capability
				  (AFC).
Priority 2 - Customer requirements under 1500 Mcf per peak
				  month without AFC.
Priority 3 - Customer requirements over 1500 Mcf per peak
				  month without AFC.
Priority 4 - Electric generation requirements for essential
				  electric human needs that do not have available supplies of alternate fuels or
				  alternate sources of electricity.
Priority 5 - Customer requirements for human needs with
				  AFC.
Priority 6 - Requirements of customers with AFC that do not
				  come under any other priority.
Priority 7 - Requirements for boiler fuel.
RULES
A. Each
				jurisdictional natural gas utility shall develop a plan for curtailment of gas
				sales which complies with the schedule of priorities and rules adopted herein.
				To the extent necessary, such plan may provide for subclasses under each of the
				priority classes. Each curtailment plan shall be filed as a part of the
				jurisdictional natural gas utility's tariffs.
B. Each jurisdictional natural gas utility
				shall be responsible for the administration of its curtailment plan, including
				the determination of Alternate Fuel Capability (AFC).
C. Interruptible gas service may be
				furnished, in management's discretion, as available gas supplies permit.
				However, the Commission may terminate, or alter, the sale of gas to
				interruptible customers if it is determined that such sales unreasonably affect
				the reliability of supplies of gas for priority end- uses.
D. In the event of an unforeseen emergency of
				limited duration, each jurisdictional natural gas utility experiencing the
				emergency shall:
1. Encourage maximum
				conservation by all customers.
2.
				Use its own emergency facilities to the limit of their capability.
3. Consider establishing a temporary
				moratorium against the connection of new customers.
4. If the Commission finds that a
				jurisdictional natural gas utility cannot supply all of its customers natural
				gas because an emergency exists, the Commission may, by order, establish a
				temporary moratorium on the connection of new customers if such moratorium is
				necessary to minimize the adverse impact on the public health and safety and to
				facilitate restoration of normal service to all customers at the earliest time
				practicable.