69-8-304. Cooperative utility -- distribution services. (1) A cooperative utility transition plan must include distribution facility tariffs that must be established by the cooperative utility's local governing body and must include the obligation for the cooperative utility to:
     (a) make distribution services available to all electricity suppliers, transmission services providers, and customers on a nondiscriminatory and comparable basis;
     (b) build and maintain distribution facilities; and
     (c) be an emergency supplier of electricity and related services.
     (2) If a distribution services provider acts as an emergency supplier of electricity and related services to a customer of an electricity supplier, then the electricity supplier failing to meet contractual obligations shall reimburse the distribution services provider at an amount to be set by the local governing body but may not exceed the higher of a multiple of the cost or a multiple of the then-existing market rate for that electricity. The market rate is the highest published rate for electricity purchased within the local load control area at the time that the distribution services provider provided the emergency supply. A distribution services provider is not required to purchase any reserve supply of electricity to fulfill this obligation.
     (3) Recoverable costs for cooperative utilities must be based upon standard financial reporting statements and may reflect comparable rates of return of other utilities.

     History: En. Sec. 16, Ch. 505, L. 1997.