(1) (a) Except when operating under paragraph (c) or (d) of this subsection (1), a public utility, as to rates, charges, service, or facilities, or in any other respect, shall not make or grant any preference or advantage to a corporation or person or subject a corporation or person to any prejudice or disadvantage. A public utility shall not establish or maintain any unreasonable difference as to rates, charges, service, facilities, or between localities or class of service. The commission may determine any question of fact arising under this section. (b) Repealed. (c) A local exchange provider, as defined in section 40-15-102 (18), may enter into a contract, when necessary, specifying non-cost-based rates and conditions particular to that contract with one or more purchasers of services for applications of interactive video technology for purposes of distance learning, video arraignment of defendants in criminal cases, or examination, diagnosis, or treatment of patients in the course of medical practice. When an application is subject to a bidding process by the end user of the service, the local exchange providers offering component elements of interactive video technology pursuant to this paragraph (c) shall offer the component elements relating to a specific application to a specific end user to all bidders, including themselves, if bidding, at the same rates, terms, and conditions. This exception shall not apply to any other regulated service. A provider other than a local exchange provider may offer such interactive video services if such services are provided under the same terms and conditions as specified in this paragraph (c). Each contract entered into under this paragraph (c) shall be filed with the commission for information only. (d) (I) Notwithstanding any provision of articles 1 to 7 of this title 40 to the contrary, the commission may approve any rate, charge, service, classification, or facility of a gas or electric utility that makes or grants a reasonable preference or advantage to income-qualified utility customers, even if the reasonable preference or advantage applies on a year-round basis, and the implementation of such commission-approved rate, charge, service, classification, or facility by a public utility shall not be deemed to subject any individual or corporation to any prejudice, disadvantage, or undue discrimination. (II) As used in this subsection (1)(d), an "income-qualified utility customer" means a utility customer who the department of human services, created in section 26-1-105; the organization defined in section 40-8.7-103 (4); or the Colorado energy office, created in section 24-38.5-101, has determined: (A) Has a household income at or below two hundred percent of the current federal poverty line; (B) Has a household income at or below eighty percent of the area median income, as published annually by the United States department of housing and urban development; or (C) Otherwise meets the income eligibility criteria set forth in rules of the department of human services adopted pursuant to section 40-8.5-105. (III) When considering whether to approve a rate that makes or grants a reasonable preference or advantage to income-qualified utility customers, the commission shall take into account the potential impact on, and cost-shifting to, utility customers other than income- qualified utility customers. (IV) A commission-approved gas or electric utility rate, charge, service, classification, or facility that makes or grants a reasonable preference or advantage to income-qualified utility customers may apply to income-qualified utility customers on a year-round basis. (2) Nothing in articles 1 to 7 of this title 40 prohibits a public utility engaged in the production, generation, transmission, or furnishing of heat, light, gas, water, power, or telephone service from establishing a graduated scale of charges subject to this title 40; except that, for rates resulting from a rate design change approved by the commission on or after September 1, 2020, the commission shall require utility revenue or billing adjustment mechanisms to ensure that a utility's change in rate design results in a revenue-neutral outcome. In adopting new rate designs for residential customers, the commission shall evaluate the potential for higher bills due to changes in rate design. Rate designs that disproportionately negatively impact low-income residential customers compared to other residential customers of the utility are presumed to be contrary to the public interest. (3) Nothing in this section shall prevent the commission from revoking its approval at any time and fixing other rates and charges for the product or commodity or service as authorized by articles 1 to 7 of this title. (4) The commission shall order a fixed public utility, except a municipally owned utility, to increase its rates only to its customers in a municipality by adding a surcharge to recover the amount such fixed public utility pays to that municipality as a cost of doing business within that municipality under a franchise or pursuant to a license or occupation tax levied by the municipality, so long as the increase in rates by such fixed public utility is pursuant to a method of surcharge approved by the commission. Occupation tax as used in this subsection (4) does not include the employer and employee tax imposed by a municipality for the privilege of employment within that municipality. (5) Repealed.
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