AN ACT Relating to public utilities regulations; and amending RCW 80.04.010 and 80.04.130.

BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF WASHINGTON:

Sec. 1. Section 80.04.010, chapter 14, Laws of 1961 as last amended by section 10, chapter 191, Laws of 1979 ex. sess. and RCW 80.04.010 are each amended to read as follows:

As used in this title, unless specifically defined otherwise or unless the context indicates otherwise:

"Commission" means the utilities and transportation commission.

"Commissioner" means one of the members of such commission.

"Corporation" includes a corporation, company, association or joint stock association.

"Person" includes an individual, a firm or copartnership.

"Gas plant" includes all real estate, fixtures and personal property, owned, leased, controlled, used or to be used for or in connection with the transmission, distribution, sale or furnishing of natural gas, or the manufacture, transmission, distribution, sale or furnishing of other type gas, for light, heat or power.

"Gas company" includes every corporation, company, association, joint stock association, partnership and person, their lessees, trustees or receiver appointed by any court whatsoever, and every city or town, owning, controlling, operating or managing any gas plant within this state.

"Electric plant" includes all real estate, fixtures and personal property operated, owned, used or to be used for or in connection with or to facilitate the generation, transmission, distribution, sale or furnishing of electricity for light, heat, or power for hire; and any 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.

"Electrical company" includes any corporation, company, association, joint stock association, partnership and person, their lessees, trustees or receivers appointed by any court whatsoever (other than a railroad or street railroad company generating electricity solely for railroad or street railroad purposes or for the use of its tenants and not for sale to others), and every city or town owning, operating or managing any electric plant for hire within this state. "Electrical company" does not include a company or person employing a cogeneration facility solely for the generation of electricity for its own use or the use of its tenants or for sale to an electrical company, state or local public agency, municipal corporation, or quasi municipal corporation engaged in the sale or distribution of electrical energy, but not for sale to others, unless such company or person is otherwise an electrical company.

"Telephone company" includes every corporation, company, association, joint stock association, partnership and person, their lessees, trustees or receivers appointed by any court whatsoever, and every city or town owning, operating or managing any telephone line or part of telephone line used in the conduct of the business of affording telephonic communication for hire within this state.

"Telephone line" includes conduits, ducts, poles, wires, cables, cross-arms, receivers, transmitters, instruments, machines, appliances, instrumentalities and all devices, real estate, easements, apparatus, property and routes used, operated, owned or controlled by any telephone company to facilitate the business of affording telephonic communication.

"Telegraph company" includes every corporation, company, association, joint stock association, partnership and person, their lessees, trustees or receivers appointed by any court whatsoever, owning, operating or managing any telegraph line or part of telegraph line used in the conduct of the business of affording for hire communication by telegraph within this state.

"Telegraph line" includes conduits, poles, wire, cables, cross-arms, instruments, machines, appliances, instrumentalities and all devices, real estate, easements, apparatus, property and routes used, operated or owned by any telegraph company to facilitate the business of affording communication by telegraph.

"Water system" includes all real estate, easements, fixtures, personal property, dams, dikes, head gates, weirs, canals, reservoirs, flumes or other structures or appliances operated, owned, used or to be used for or in connection with or to facilitate the supply, storage, distribution, sale, furnishing, diversion, carriage, apportionment or measurement of water for power, irrigation, reclamation, manufacturing, municipal, domestic or other beneficial uses for hire.

"Water company" includes every corporation, company, association, joint stock association, partnership and person, their lessees, trustees or receivers appointed by any court whatsoever, and every city or town owning, controlling, operating, or managing any water system for hire within this state: PROVIDED, That for purposes of commission jurisdiction it shall not include any water system serving less than ((~~sixty~~)) one hundred customers where the average annual gross revenue per customer does not exceed ((~~one hundred twenty~~)) three hundred dollars per year, which revenue figure may be increased annually by the commission by rule adopted pursuant to chapter 34.04 RCW to reflect the rate of inflation as determined by the implicit price deflator of the United States department of commerce: AND PROVIDED FURTHER, That such measurement of customers or revenues shall include all portions of water companies having common ownership, regardless of location or corporate designation. However, water companies exempt from commission regulation shall be subject to the provisions of chapter 19.86 RCW.

"Cogeneration facility" means any machinery, equipment, structure, process, or property, or any part thereof, installed or acquired for the primary purpose of the sequential generation of electrical or mechanical power and useful heat from the same primary energy source or fuel.

"Public service company" includes every gas company, electrical company, telephone company, telegraph company and water company. Ownership or operation of a cogeneration facility does not, by itself, make a company or person a public service company.

The term "service" is used in this title in its broadest and most inclusive sense.

Sec. 2. Section 80.04.130, chapter 14, Laws of 1961 as amended by section 2, chapter 3, Laws of 1984 and RCW 80.04.130 are each amended to read as follows:

(1) Except as provided in subsection (3) of this section, whenever any public service company shall file with the commission any schedule, classification, rule or regulation, the effect of which is to change any rate, charge, rental or toll theretofore charged, the commission shall have power, either upon its own motion or upon complaint, upon notice, to enter upon a hearing concerning such proposed change and the reasonableness and justness thereof, and pending such hearing and the decision thereon the commission may suspend the operation of such rate, charge, rental or toll for a period not exceeding ten months from the time the same would otherwise go into effect, and after a full hearing the commission may make such order in reference thereto as would be provided in a hearing initiated after the same had become effective.

The commission may suspend the initial tariff filing of any water company removed from and later subject to commission jurisdiction because of the number of customers or the average annual gross revenue per customer provisions of RCW 80.04.010. The commission may allow temporary rates during the suspension period. These rates shall not exceed the rates charged when the company was last regulated. Upon a showing of good cause by the company, the commission may establish a different level of temporary rates.

(2) At any hearing involving any change in any schedule, classification, rule or regulation the effect of which is to increase any rate, charge, rental or toll theretofore charged, the burden of proof to show that such increase is just and reasonable shall be upon the public service company.

(3) The implementation of mandatory local measured telephone service is a major policy change in available telephone service. The commission shall not approve, prior to June 1, 1985, any filings which are under suspension as of February 16, 1984, which are awaiting an order by the commission, or which are filed on or after February 16, 1984, if the filing involuntarily requires any telephone user to pay for all outgoing local telephone calls based on time and/or distance. As to any such filing, the requirements in subsection (1) of this section for the commission to act on that filing within ten months from the date the filing would otherwise go into effect are suspended under this subsection from February 16, 1984, until June 1, 1985. This subsection shall not apply to any service such as land, marine, or air mobile service, or any like service that has traditionally been offered on a measured-service basis.