S.B. 73 Enrolled

TELEPHONE CORPORATION DEFINITION AMENDMENTS
2000 GENERAL SESSION
STATE OF UTAH
Sponsor: Lorin V. Jones
AN ACT RELATING TO PUBLIC UTILITIES; AMENDING THE DEFINITION OF
TELEPHONE CORPORATION.
This act affects sections of Utah Code Annotated 1953 as follows:
AMENDS:
54-2-1, as last amended by Chapter 170, Laws of Utah 1996
Be it enacted by the Legislature of the state of Utah:
Section 1. Section 54-2-1 is amended to read:
54-2-1. Definitions.
[When] As used in this title:
(1) "Avoided costs" means the incremental costs to an electrical corporation of electric
energy or capacity or both which, due to the purchase of electric energy or capacity or both from
small power production or cogeneration facilities, the electrical corporation would not have to
generate itself or purchase from another electrical corporation.
(2) "Cogeneration facility":
(a) means a facility which produces:
(i) electric energy; and
(ii) steam or forms of useful energy, including heat, which are used for industrial,
commercial, heating, or cooling purposes; and
(b) is a qualifying cogeneration facility under federal law.
(3) "Commission" means the Public Service Commission of the state of Utah.
(4) "Commissioner" means a member of the commission.
(5) "Corporation" includes an association, and a joint stock company having any powers
or privileges not possessed by individuals or partnerships. It does not include towns, cities,
counties, conservancy districts, improvement districts, or other governmental units created or
organized under any general or special law of this state.

(6) "Electrical corporation" includes every corporation, cooperative association, and person,
their lessees, trustees, and receivers, owning, controlling, operating, or managing any electric plant,
or in any way furnishing electric power for public service or to its consumers or members for
domestic, commercial, or industrial use, within this state, except independent energy producers, and
except where electricity is generated on or distributed by the producer solely for his own use, or the
use of his tenants, or for the use of members of an association of unit owners formed under Title 57,
Chapter 8, Condominium Ownership Act, and not for sale to the public generally.
(7) "Electric plant" includes all real estate, fixtures, and personal property owned, controlled,
operated, or managed in connection with or to facilitate the production, generation, transmission,
delivery, or furnishing of electricity for light, heat, or power, and all conduits, ducts, or other devices,
materials, apparatus, or property for containing, holding, or carrying conductors used or to be used
for the transmission of electricity for light, heat, or power.
(8) "Gas corporation" includes every corporation and person, their lessees, trustees, and
receivers, owning, controlling, operating, or managing any gas plant for public service within this
state or for the selling or furnishing of natural gas to any consumer or consumers within the state for
domestic, commercial, or industrial use, except in the situation that:
(a) gas is made or produced on, and distributed by the maker or producer through, private
property, solely for his own use or the use of his tenants and not for sale to others;
(b) gas is compressed on private property solely for the owner's own use or the use of his
employees as a motor vehicle fuel; or
(c) gas is compressed by a retailer of motor vehicle fuel on his property solely for sale as a
motor vehicle fuel.
(9) "Gas plant" includes all real estate, fixtures, and personal property owned, controlled,
operated, or managed in connection with or to facilitate the production, generation, transmission,
delivery, or furnishing of gas, natural or manufactured, for light, heat, or power.
(10) "Heat corporation" includes every corporation and person, their lessees, trustees, and
receivers, owning, controlling, operating, or managing any heating plant for public service within this
state.

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(11) "Heating plant" includes all real estate, fixtures, machinery, appliances, and personal
property controlled, operated, or managed in connection with or to facilitate the production,
generation, transmission, delivery, or furnishing of artificial heat. Heating plant does not include
either small power production facilities or cogeneration facilities.
(12) "Independent energy producer" means every electrical corporation, person, corporation,
or government entity, their lessees, trustees, or receivers, that own, operate, control, or manage a
small power production or cogeneration facility.
(13) "Private telecommunications system" includes all facilities for the transmission of signs,
signals, writing, images, sounds, messages, data, or other information of any nature by wire, radio,
lightwaves, or other electromagnetic means, excluding mobile radio facilities, that are owned,
controlled, operated, or managed by a corporation or person, including their lessees, trustees,
receivers, or trustees appointed by any court, for the use of that corporation or person and not for
the shared use with or resale to any other corporation or person on a regular basis.
(14) (a) "Public utility" includes every railroad corporation, gas corporation, electrical
corporation, wholesale electrical cooperative, telephone corporation, telegraph corporation, water
corporation, sewerage corporation, heat corporation, and independent energy producer not described
in Subsection (14)(d), where the service is performed for, or the commodity delivered to, the public
generally, or in the case of a gas corporation or electrical corporation where the gas or electricity is
sold or furnished to any member or consumers within the state for domestic, commercial, or industrial
use.
(b) (i) If any railroad corporation, gas corporation, electrical corporation, telephone
corporation, telegraph corporation, water corporation, sewerage corporation, heat corporation, or
independent energy producer not described in Subsection (14)(d), performs a service for or delivers
a commodity to the public, it is considered to be a public utility, subject to the jurisdiction and
regulation of the commission and this title.
(ii) If a gas corporation, independent energy producer not described in Subsection (14)(d),
or electrical corporation sells or furnishes gas or electricity to any member or consumers within the
state, for domestic, commercial, or industrial use, for which any compensation or payment is received,

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it is considered to be a public utility, subject to the jurisdiction and regulation of the commission and
this title.
(c) Any corporation or person not engaged in business exclusively as a public utility as
defined in this section is governed by this title in respect only to the public utility owned, controlled,
operated, or managed by it or by him, and not in respect to any other business or pursuit.
(d) An independent energy producer is exempt from the jurisdiction and regulations of the
commission if it meets the requirements of Subsection (d)(i), (ii), or (iii), or any combination of these:
(i) the commodity or service is produced or delivered, or both, by an independent energy
producer solely for the uses exempted in Subsection (6) or for the use of state-owned facilities;
(ii) the commodity or service is sold by an independent energy producer to an electrical
corporation; or
(iii) (A) the commodity or service delivered by the independent energy producer is delivered
to an entity which controls, is controlled by, or affiliated with the independent energy producer or to
a user located on real property managed by the independent energy producer; and
(B) the real property on which the service or commodity is used is contiguous to real
property which is owned or controlled by the independent energy producer. Parcels of real property
separated solely by public roads or easements for public roads shall be considered as contiguous for
purposes of this Subsection (14).
(e) Any person or corporation defined as an electrical corporation or public utility under this
section may continue to serve its existing customers subject to any order or future determination of
the commission in reference to the right to serve those customers.
(f) (i) "Public utility" does not include any person that is otherwise considered a public utility
under the provisions of Subsection (16) solely because of its ownership of an interest in an electric
plant, cogeneration facility, or small power production facility in this state if all of the following
conditions are met:
(A) the ownership interest in the electric plant, cogeneration facility, or small power
production facility is leased to:
(I) a public utility, and that lease has been approved by the commission;

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(II) a person or government entity that is exempt from commission regulation as a public
utility; or
(III) a combination of Subsections (16)(f)(i)(A)(I) and (II);
(B) the lessor of the ownership interest identified in Subsection (16)(f)(i)(A) is:
(I) primarily engaged in a business other than the business of a public utility; or
(II) a person whose total equity or beneficial ownership is held directly or indirectly by
another person engaged in a business other than the business of a public utility; and
(C) the rent reserved under the lease does not include any amount based on or determined
by revenues or income of the lessee.
(ii) Any person that is exempt from classification as a public utility under Subsection (16)(f)(i)
shall continue to be so exempt from classification following termination of the lessee's right to
possession or use of the electric plant for so long as the former lessor does not operate the electric
plant or sell electricity from the electric plant. If the former lessor operates the electric plant or sells
electricity, the former lessor shall continue to be so exempt for a period of 90 days following
termination, or for a longer period that is ordered by the commission. This period may not exceed
one year. No change in rates that would otherwise require commission approval may be effective
during the 90-day or extended period without commission approval.
(g) "Public utility" does not include any person that provides financing for, but has no
ownership interest in an electric plant, small power production facility, or cogeneration facility. In
the event of a foreclosure in which an ownership interest in an electric plant, small power production
facility, or cogeneration facility is transferred to a third-party financer of an electric plant, small power
production facility, or cogeneration facility, then that third-party financer is exempt from classification
as a public utility for 90 days following the foreclosure, or for a longer period that is ordered by the
commission. This period may not exceed one year.
(h) (i) The distribution or transportation of natural gas for use as a motor vehicle fuel does
not cause the distributor or transporter to be a "public utility," unless the commission, after notice and
a public hearing, determines by rule that it is in the public interest to regulate the distributers or
transporters, but the retail sale alone of compressed natural gas as a motor vehicle fuel may not cause

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the seller to be a "public utility."
(ii) In determining whether it is in the public interest to regulate the distributors or
transporters, the commission shall consider, among other things, the impact of the regulation on the
availability and price of natural gas for use as a motor fuel.
(15) "Purchasing utility" means any electrical corporation that is required to purchase
electricity from small power production or cogeneration facilities pursuant to the Public Utility
Regulatory Policies Act, 16 U.S.C. Section 824a-3.
(16) "Railroad" includes every commercial, interurban, and other railway, other than a street
railway, and each branch or extension of a railway, by any power operated, together with all tracks,
bridges, trestles, rights-of-way, subways, tunnels, stations, depots, union depots, yards, grounds,
terminals, terminal facilities, structures, and equipment, and all other real estate, fixtures, and personal
property of every kind used in connection with a railway owned, controlled, operated, or managed
for public service in the transportation of persons or property.
(17) "Railroad corporation" includes every corporation and person, their lessees, trustees,
and receivers, owning, controlling, operating, or managing any railroad for public service within this
state.
(18) "Sewerage corporation" includes every corporation and person, their lessees, trustees,
and receivers, owning, controlling, operating, or managing any sewerage system for public service
within this state. It does not include private sewerage companies engaged in disposing of sewage
only for their stockholders, or towns, cities, counties, conservancy districts, improvement districts,
or other governmental units created or organized under any general or special law of this state.
(19) "Small power production facility" means a facility which:
(a) produces electric energy solely by the use, as a primary energy source, of biomass, waste,
renewable resources, geothermal resources, or any combination of them;
(b) has a power production capacity which, together with any other facilities located at the
same site, is not greater than 80 megawatts; and
(c) is a qualifying small power production facility under federal law.
(20) "Telegraph corporation" includes every corporation and person, their lessees, trustees,

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and receivers, owning, controlling, operating, or managing any telegraph line for public service within
this state.
(21) "Telegraph line" includes all conduits, ducts, poles, wires, cables, instruments, and
appliances, and all other real estate, fixtures, and personal property owned, controlled, operated, or
managed in connection with or to facilitate communication by telegraph, whether that communication
be had with or without the use of transmission wires.
(22) (a) "Telephone corporation" [includes every corporation and person, their lessees,
trustees, and receivers, owning, controlling, operating, or managing any telephone line for public
service within this state, provided, however, that all corporations, partnerships, or firms providing
intrastate cellular telephone service shall cease to be "telephone corporations" nine months after both
the wire-line and the nonwire-line cellular service providers have been issued covering licenses by the
Federal Communications Commission. It does not include any person which provides, on a resale
basis, any telephone or telecommunication service which is purchased from a telephone corporation.]
means any corporation or person, and their lessees, trustee, receivers, or trustees appointed by any
court, who owns, controls, operates, manages, or resells a public telecommunications service as
defined in Section 54-86-2 .
(b) "Telephone corporation" does not mean a corporation, partnership, or firm providing:
(i) intrastate telephone service offered by a provider of cellular, personal communication
systems (PCS), or other commercial mobile radio service as defined in 47 U.S.C. Sec. 332 that has
been issued a covering license by the Federal Communications Commission;
(ii) Internet service; or
(iii) resold intrastate toll service.
(23) "Telephone line" includes all conduits, ducts, poles, wires, cables, instruments, and
appliances, and all other real estate, fixtures, and personal property owned, controlled, operated, or
managed in connection with or to facilitate communication by telephone whether that communication
is had with or without the use of transmission wires.
(24) "Transportation of persons" includes every service in connection with or incidental to
the safety, comfort, or convenience of the person transported, and the receipt, carriage, and delivery

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of that person and his baggage.
(25) "Transportation of property" includes every service in connection with or incidental to
the transportation of property, including in particular its receipt, delivery, elevation, transfer,
switching, carriage, ventilation, refrigeration, icing, dunnage, storage, and hauling, and the
transmission of credit by express companies.
(26) "Water corporation" includes every corporation and person, their lessees, trustees, and
receivers, owning, controlling, operating, or managing any water system for public service within this
state. It does not include private irrigation companies engaged in distributing water only to their
stockholders, or towns, cities, counties, water conservancy districts, improvement districts, or other
governmental units created or organized under any general or special law of this state.
(27) "Water system" includes all reservoirs, tunnels, shafts, dams, dikes, headgates, pipes,
flumes, canals, structures, and appliances, and all other real estate, fixtures, and personal property
owned, controlled, operated, or managed in connection with or to facilitate the diversion,
development, storage, supply, distribution, sale, furnishing, carriage, appointment, apportionment,
or measurement of water for power, fire protection, irrigation, reclamation, or manufacturing, or for
municipal, domestic, or other beneficial use. It does not include private irrigation companies engaged
in distributing water only to their stockholders.
(28) "Wholesale electrical cooperative" includes every electrical corporation:
(a) which is in the business of the wholesale distribution of electricity it has purchased or
generated to its members and the public; and
(b) which is required to distribute or allocate savings in excess of additions to reserves and
surplus to members or patrons on the basis of patronage.


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