CHAPTER 67. SERVICE OUTAGES Sec.
67.1. General provisions.Authority The provisions of this Chapter 67 issued under sections 901, 905 and 401 of the Public Utility Law (66 P. S. § § 1341, 1345 and 1171), unless otherwise noted.
Source The provisions of this Chapter 67 adopted March 12, 1976, effective March 13, 1976, 6 Pa.B. 452, unless otherwise noted.
Cross References This chapter cited in 52 Pa. Code § 65.5 (relating to interruptions of service).
§ 67.1. General provisions.
(a) Electric, gas, water, steam and telephone utilities holding certificates of public convenience under 66 Pa.C.S. § § 1101 and 1102 (relating to organization of public utilities and beginning of service; and enumeration of acts requiring certificate) shall adopt the following steps to notify the Commission with regard to unscheduled service interruptions.
(b) All electric, gas, water, steam and telephone utilities shall notify the Commission when 2,500 or 5.0%, whichever is less, of their total customers have an unscheduled service interruption in a single event for 6 or more projected consecutive hours. Steam utilities with fewer than 50 customers shall provide notice when 10% of total customers experience an interruption. A service outage report shall be filed with the Commission within 10 working days after the total restoration of service. Where storm conditions cause multiple reportable interruptions as defined by this section, a single composite service outage report shall be filed for the event. Each report must contain the following information:
(1) The approximate number of customers interrupted during the event.
(2) The approximate number of trouble cases for each county affected during the event. Trouble cases are non-outage cases such as primary and secondary line-down calls and emergency calls.
(3) The approximate number of outage cases for each county affected during the event.
(4) The number of outage cases exceeding 6 or more hours in duration.
(5) A listing of each outage case exceeding 6 or more hours in duration, including the following:
(i) Approximate geographic location (county, city, municipality or township).
(ii) Total number of customers affected.
(iii) Duration of the outage.
(iv) Initial date and time of the outage.
(v) Restoration time and date.
(6) The reason for the interruption.
(7) The projected time for service restoration of the event.
(8) A listing of the number of utility workers assigned specifically to the repair work by general function, that is linemen, troublemen, tree crew, and the like.
(9) A listing of the number of contract workers assigned specifically to the repair work by company and by general function, that is linemen, troublemen, tree crew, and the like.
(10) A listing of the number of workers received as mutual aid by company and by general function, that is linemen, troublemen, tree crew, and the like.
(11) The date and time of the first information of a service interruption.
(12) The date and time that repair crews were assembled.
(13) The actual time that service was restored to the last affected customer.
(14) A general description of the physical damage sustained by the utility facilities as a result of the event. The description must include facilities replaced due to damage and a listing of the number of poles, transformers, spans of wire, pipes or valves replaced.
(15) For weather-related events, the utility’s weather reports, outlooks or scenarios for the day before and the day of the interruption event.
(16) For all interruption events that caused outages to more than 10% of customers in the utility’s service territory, and to the best of the utility’s ability to access historical data, the historical ranking of the event in terms of the number and duration of outages and examples of two comparable events, including the number and duration of outages for those comparable events.
(c) In addition to the requirements of subsection (b), the utility shall notify the Commission by telephone within 1 hour after preliminary assessment of conditions reasonably indicates that the criteria listed in subsection (b) may be applicable. Subsection (b)(1), (3), (6) and (7) shall be used as guidelines for the telephone report. The Commission will maintain telephone lines for this purpose and will notify each utility of the numbers to be called. Blank outage reporting forms are available for download on the Commission’s web site.
(d) The Commission will implement a plan to govern its internal operations in receiving notification of service interruptions, in investigating such interruptions, and in assisting the customers of the utility, the utility and Commonwealth agencies in restoring service.
(e) All electric, gas, water, steam and telephone utilities shall list in the local telephone directories of their service areas, and on their web sites, a telephone number to be used during normal operating hours and an emergency telephone number to be used 24 hours in emergency service situations.
(f) As defined in subsection (b), the service outage report must contain the required information except for the following utilities:
(1) Gas and steam utilities are not required to submit the information under subsection (b)(2), (5), (14), (15) and (16).
(2) Water utilities are not required to submit the information under subsection (b)(2), (15) and (16).
(3) Telephone utilities are not required to submit the information under subsection (b)(2), (4), (5), (8), (9), (10), (12), (14), (15) and (16). Alternatively, in lieu of the service outage report required under subsection (b), telephone utilities may file a comparable outage report required by the Federal Communications Commission as long as the comparable report, at a minimum, contains the following information:
(i) The name of the reporting entity.
(ii) The reason for the interruption.
(iii) The date and time of the first information of a service interruption.
(iv) The approximate number of customers interrupted.
(v) The geographic area affected by the interruption.
(vi) The actual time that service was restored to the last affected customer.
(g) The reporting under this chapter is not limited to the requirements in this section and does not limit requests for additional information.
Authority The provisions of this § 67.1 amended under the Public Utility Code, 66 Pa.C.S. § § 331, 501, 1501 and 1504.
Source The provisions of this § 67.1 amended December 14, 1984, effective December 15, 1984, 14 Pa.B. 4511; amended January 6, 2012, effective January 7, 2012, 42 Pa.B. 9; corrected September 21, 2012, effective January 7, 2012, 42 Pa.B. 5969; amended December 1, 2017, effective December 2, 2017, 47 Pa.B. 7314. Immediately preceding text appears at serial pages (363661) to (363662) and (371695).
Cross References This section cited in 52 Pa. Code § 57.52 (relating to emergency load control and energy conservation by electric utilities); 52 Pa. Code § 69.1603 (relating to other associated actions); and 52 Pa. Code § 69.1903 (relating to preparation and response measures).
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