§ 53.27 RATES.
   (A)   Reasonable.
      (1)   Every rate made, demanded, or received by any utility shall be just and reasonable. Rates shall not be unreasonably preferential or discriminatory and shall be reasonably consistent in application to a class of customers and to a rate area. Rates negotiated under division (A)(3) below shall not be considered discriminatory.
      (2)   No utility shall, as to rates or service, make or grant any unreasonable preference or advantage to any person, or subject any person to any unreasonable prejudice or disadvantage.
      (3)   A utility may negotiate price and other contract terms with customers whose natural gas requirements exceed 50,000 cubic feet per day.
(Prior Code, § 3-1203)
   (B)   Rate schedules. A utility shall provide to each municipality it serves, for informational purposes, copies of rate schedules for all rates charged customers and the requirements for service under such schedules within the city. The schedules shall also show the natural gas supply costs and natural gas supply cost adjustments included in the total end rate.
(Prior Code, § 3-1204)
   (C)   Rate area; notice.
      (1)   (a)   Except as provided in division (C)(5) below, each utility providing service to customers within a municipality in this state which intends to include a municipality within a rate area shall file notice of proposed area boundaries with the office of the Clerk of each affected municipality.
         (b)   There shall be no filing fee charged for filing the notice. The notice shall include an explanation of how the boundaries of the rate area were determined and a map showing the boundaries of the rate area. Each time a new rate area is established or the boundaries of rate area are changed, all municipalities in the rate area shall receive notice.
       (2)   A municipality shall have 60 days after the notice of proposed area boundaries is filed to accept or reject its inclusion within the rate area. Failure of the city to accept or reject its inclusion within the boundaries of the proposed rate area, within the 60-day period, shall be deemed acceptance. Rejection of the boundaries may be appealed by the utility to the District Court. The court shall determine the reasonableness of the inclusion of the city within the rate area or the reasonableness of the boundaries. If more than one municipality within a rate area rejects the boundaries, all appeals by the utility shall be joined in a single action; except upon good cause shown by a municipality to have its rejection heard separately. The court may accept or reject the boundaries but may not draft boundaries of its own.
      (3)   After a rate area has been accepted:
         (a)   All rate filings shall be initiated simultaneously in each municipality within the rate area; and
         (b)   Area rates shall be deemed appropriate for each municipality within the rate area.
      (4)   If area rates are applied to municipalities in a rate area which do not have uniform rates for customers on the effective date of this chapter, the rates in each municipality shall be adjusted in a manner which equalizes the rates in all municipalities in the rate area. Such equalization of rates shall be established by January 1, 1992, or in the first rate case filed after such date by the utility under § 53.30(A).
      (5)   Any utility proposing to increase rates on any area wide basis within 90 days of the effective date of this chapter shall be permitted to make a rate filing based on proposed area boundaries before a final determination of area boundaries is made as provided in this section. The requirements of this chapter shall be complied with fully, except that the time periods provided for proposed rate area boundary determinations in this section and the time periods provided for area rate filing shall run concurrently and not consecutively. In the event that the rate area boundaries are ultimately determined to be other than those that formed the basis for the rate filing, the city may request that an amended rate filing based on the final rate area boundaries be provided. In no event shall the filing of the notice of proposed area boundaries provided for in division (C)(1) above be made later than the date of filing of the rate filing. Nothing in this section shall suspend the time periods provided for in § 53.27(D) from the date of the rate filing. Rate filings under this section shall not be subject to § 53.28, except that a utility shall provide as much prior notice of a proposed rate filing as it reasonably can.
(Prior Code, § 3-1205)
   (D)   Interim rates.
      (1)   No utility shall impose, charge, or collect any rate upon its customers until such time as any proposed rate has been finally determined; except that a utility shall have the right to collect interim rates, subject to refund, if the city has not taken final action to allow the rate increase within 90 countable days of the date of filing for the increase. The rates requested in the rate filing shall become final and no longer subject to refund if the city has not taken final action within 180 countable days of the date of filing.
      (2)   If the utility takes timely action to initiate judicial review of the rates adopted by a municipality as provided in § 53.35, the utility shall be permitted to continue to collect interim rates from the date the rates are adopted by the city until a rate ordinance adopted by the city is affirmed by the district court or accepted by the utility, subject to refund as provided in this division (D).
      (3)   Upon final order of the district court when no further appeal to the Supreme Court is pursued, or upon acceptance by the utility of a lower rate than that being collected, a utility shall, within 60 days of such final order or acceptance, refund the difference between the rate found proper or agreed to and the rate collected, plus interest on such amount as provided in division (D)(4) below.
      (4)   Any amounts refunded pursuant to this section shall bear interest fixed at a rate equal to one and one-half percentage points above the rate calculated pursuant to Neb. RS 45-103, in effect on the date of final determination of the rates by the city.
      (5)   Upon final determination of rates following the exhaustion of all appeals, the utility shall be permitted to recover the amount of revenue which would have been produced had the finally determined rates been in effect throughout the period following the decision by the district court until the final rates were adopted by the city. In the event that the revenue actually collected by the utility through interim rates is less than that which would have been collected, had the final rates been effective throughout such period, the utility shall be permitted to recover the deficiency plus interest at the rate provided in this division (D) through a surcharge on customer billings over a reasonable period not to exceed 12 months. In the event that the revenue actually collected by the utility through interim rates exceeds that which would have been collected had the final rates been effective throughout such period, the utility shall refund the excess with interest as provided in this division (D).
(Prior Code, § 3-1206)
Statutory reference:
   Related provisions, see Neb. RS 19-4604 through 19-4607