View all text of Subchapter II [§ 824 - § 824w]
§ 824e. Power of Commission to fix rates and charges; determination of cost of production or transmission
(a) Unjust or preferential rates, etc.; statement of reasons for changes; hearing; specification of issues
(b) Refund effective date; preferential proceedings; statement of reasons for delay; burden of proof; scope of refund order; refund orders in cases of dilatory behavior; interest
(c) Refund considerations; shifting costs; reduction in revenues; “electric utility companies” and “registered holding company” defined
(d) Investigation of costs
(e) Short-term sales
(1) In this subsection:
(A) The term “short-term sale” means an agreement for the sale of electric energy at wholesale in interstate commerce that is for a period of 31 days or less (excluding monthly contracts subject to automatic renewal).
(B) The term “applicable Commission rule” means a Commission rule applicable to sales at wholesale by public utilities that the Commission determines after notice and comment should also be applicable to entities subject to this subsection.
(2) If an entity described in section 824(f) of this title voluntarily makes a short-term sale of electric energy through an organized market in which the rates for the sale are established by Commission-approved tariff (rather than by contract) and the sale violates the terms of the tariff or applicable Commission rules in effect at the time of the sale, the entity shall be subject to the refund authority of the Commission under this section with respect to the violation.
(3) This section shall not apply to—
(A) any entity that sells in total (including affiliates of the entity) less than 8,000,000 megawatt hours of electricity per year; or
(B) an electric cooperative.
(4)
(A) The Commission shall have refund authority under paragraph (2) with respect to a voluntary short term sale of electric energy by the Bonneville Power Administration only if the sale is at an unjust and unreasonable rate.
(B) The Commission may order a refund under subparagraph (A) only for short-term sales made by the Bonneville Power Administration at rates that are higher than the highest just and reasonable rate charged by any other entity for a short-term sale of electric energy in the same geographic market for the same, or most nearly comparable, period as the sale by the Bonneville Power Administration.
(C) In the case of any Federal power marketing agency or the Tennessee Valley Authority, the Commission shall not assert or exercise any regulatory authority or power under paragraph (2) other than the ordering of refunds to achieve a just and reasonable rate.
(June 10, 1920, ch. 285, pt. II, § 206, as added Aug. 26, 1935, ch. 687, title II, § 213, 49 Stat. 852; amended Pub. L. 100–473, § 2, Oct. 6, 1988, 102 Stat. 2299; Pub. L. 109–58, title XII, §§ 1285, 1286, 1295(b), Aug. 8, 2005, 119 Stat. 980, 981, 985.)