Minnesota Public Utilities Act

The Public Utilities Act places the provision of utility service — including electric, water, wastewater, and associated transmission and interconnection facilities — under the supervision of a regulatory commission, and creates that commission by fixing its membership, appointment, terms, removal, compensation, staffing, conflict-of-interest bars, and meeting and quorum procedures, with its costs funded through assessments on regulated utilities' revenues. The commission is given general jurisdiction over public utilities, subject to stated limits, and the act's central mechanism is the certificate of public convenience and necessity, which a utility must obtain before beginning, extending, abandoning, or discontinuing service, with related provisions allocating service territories and requiring approval for mergers, transfers of property or control, securities issuances, and assumptions of obligations. Supporting oversight tools include mandatory reports and accident notices, prescribed books and systems of accounts, commission-set standards for service, equipment, measurement, and metering, powers of investigation, hearing, and inspection of utility property and records, and consumer-side rules on charges and fees and on termination or continuation of residential service.

Editorial summary generated from the text of this act. It is not part of the statute — read the sections below for the operative language.